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Sorry to hear about your friend. I lost my husband unexpectedly just over a year ago. At the time my children were 4, 3, and 3 months. A couple of things to handle at first is to file for survivor benefits with social security for the children. There’s a one time small payment for the spouse but children will receive a monthly benefit. She should also find out if her spouse had life insurance or mortgage insurance that pays if a spouse passes away. Those are the first things I would handle. Eventually she’ll need to remove her husbands name from accounts, close any credit cards or accounts that were in his name alone. If she doesn’t have a will it would be the time to set something up. Especially regarding care of the children if something should happen to her.

I lost my father when I was younger and I can think of two things to suggest:
-get counseling for everyone, herself, kids and keep going as the kids grow
-keep pictures/memories around and alive, watch videos and talk about him often

My friend lost her husband around this time of year and the first thing she did was file for a tax extension. She knew she wouldn't be able to get to it by the deadline.

My mom makes a lot of photo books. Took to keep the memory of her husband alive, it might help to make some photo books with notes about what he was like, what his hobbies were, small things that you don't think to document. That way they can pick up the book and read it at any time without having to come up with things to talk about. And the kids can keep the books the rest of their life.