I hope none of you have to lose a parent prematurely (my Dad was 55), but the past several weeks have taught me a bit more about life and freelancing.
Saying no can save your sanity. I had a client email me with a new project a few days after my Dad died. Part of me said, "take the money, because it could be awhile before you feel like marketing again." The other part said, "you don't really want this project, and now you have a really good reason to say no." The latter part won. Losing Dad empowered me to be say no to projects I'm not excited about. Of course, most freelancers have to suck it up and take on high-paid, low-passion projects every once in awhile to beef up their bank accounts, but in this case, I'm glad I said no. Since I've been extra busy juggling funeral preparations and freelance work, I've also had to drop some of the less important day-to-day stuff. One of these days I need to get back to filing check stubs, but I've realized skipping a few or two of paperwork isn't the worst thing in the world.
What you don't say can speak louder than what you do. As the funeral home collected information to write my Dad's obituary, one of the issues that came up was how much information to offer about cause of death. Someone suggested that we omit that part altogether (MSA is not a pretty disease), but the funeral director pointed out that leaving it to the imagination might cause people to assume the worst. Copyediting the obit was not fun, but I felt we owed it to him to make sure that his legacy was free from comma splices or dangling modifiers.
It's OK to be human. I usually work well in advance, so when things slowed down a bit one of my steady clients emailed me to check in. I admit it: I fell a little behind schedule. I emailed him briefly explaining the situation and saying that I'd do my darndest to get caught up this week. He was fine with that, because the project wasn't pressing and I already had a good track record with him.
It's OK to accept help. If I took bereavement leave from an office job, then other people would be able to fill in some of the gaps. As a freelancer, I have less of a safety net (though fortunately I didn't have anything major that week). The first person I called after I got the news was a fellow writer who offered to take over any writing projects with impending deadlines. I didn't take her up on the offer, because I didn't think I'd need the help (plus, I'm a lousy delegator). But now I realize that it's OK to accept help. Should I ever need reinforcements in the future, I'll know who to call!