Certain times of year

There are certain times of year when you think of things. Memories. Fond ones. Sometimes not so fond ones.

Being Memorial Day weekend, I think of DH's father and how he would go the Rolling Thunder ride in D.C. each year. That is until he passed away in 2004. It's hard to believe it's been 4 years now.

While traveling to the National Zoo for the D.C. Mommy blogger meet-up, I saw a group of motorcylists headed to the Rolling Thunder event. I started to feel very sad and forced myself not to become overwhelmed by the feeling. Each year, I know this weekend brings up painful memories for my DH and my in-laws. I try to "check in" on him by asking how he's doing. I "pseudo" check-in on my MIL by asking DH if he's spoken to her and how she is doing. I never know whether I should bring the subject up though. If he doesn't, then I suppose it's not worth mentioning and unnecessarily bring up painful memories.

I guess why I'm writing this is to ask, how do you handle similar situations? Where you have a loved one who has suffered a loss and you want to make sure they're okay without making it worse?