What I found most comforting was a friend who phoned me on a Thursday night at eight, and we had a brief chat. At the end of the conversation, she said that she'd call again the following Thursday at eight, and she did - for the next six months.
How this helped was that, if there was anything I wanted to talk about, I knew that there was a sort of an appointment made with her so I didn't feel that I might be intruding on her time, nor she on mine.
She ended each call with "I'll call again next week, if that's ok with you". After six months, I replied, "Actually, why don't I call you next week if I need to chat?"
The worst thing ever was the never-ending question from people all around: "So what are you going to do (now that he's gone)?"