Welcome to FT, and sorry to hear about your bereavement.

Unfortunately, if you miss an outbound flight (ie you are a no-show), all subsequent flight on the same itinerary are generally cancelled. There are several reasons for this, principal among them the fact that (historically) cheap return flights are usually cheaper than full-fare one-ways. Airlines want to avoid you buying returns and throwing away legs that you don't need, thereby circumventing their arcane fare rules that attempt to price for the cost-sensitivity difference between leisure travellers (who are flexible with their time) and business travellers (who are flexible with their wallets). Along the way, legitimate reasons for missing an outbound leg get forgotten about.

If you do nothing you should expect your return flight to be cancelled. Here are some suggestions:

- can you fly to PHL rather than drive and change your flights accordingly (this may not be cheaper)?
- can you try the bereavement route again?
- can you cancel the ticket for a full(ish) refund and buy a EWR-RDU-EWR return ticket where the outbound EWR-RDU is really the return leg you want to be on, and the subsequent RDU-EWR leg is the outbound leg of your next business trip?

Good luck