My condolences for your loss. It's always heartbreaking when we lose a pet. Kinda makes you want to do everything you can to prevent the same kind of thing to happen again.
In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with wanting to clip first, and then letting them be flighted after they've gotten used to you. There are different ways to solve the same problem. Best do whichever works for you.
My bird did get clipped, but not enough to revoke her flight ability. She learned the hard way that she can't go through windows, by flying into one (luckily, being clipped kept her from getting enough speed to harm herself), and hasn't hit one since. Since she knows her way around the house, I'm going to keep her flighted after she's done with the molt and the feathers grow back (molting is in progress, so I won't have to wait that long now, unless if she's a slow molter).
