Riding is dangerous and stats say you're about 35 times more likely to die in a accident vs. someone in a car.
The death of a family member is terrible, immediate and personal. It focuses everyone's concern. Family and friends probably don't get why you want to ride and feel it's totally discretionary, so they are giving you this advice as they don't want you to suffer the same fate. Don't blame them for this.
You can mitigate the risk of having an accident by riding defensively, taking a rider course and never drink and ride. Also, public roads are not a race track. Enjoy your bike within limits. If you are always riding 10/10th's then you have absolutely no margin of safety. You can also mitigate, to some extent, severely of injury by wearing ATGATT. However, having done all this if someone doesn't see you and pulls out to pass or turns left in front of you, whatever, then that's fate.
Ultimately, it's your decision as to whether the pleasure of riding offsets the risk.