Like many of you, Christmas is when I miss the people I’ve lost the most. In particular, I miss my mother, Jean.

This holiday season, I find myself inexplicably thinking about my mother’s hands. They were the hands of a devoted homemaker, unadorned and often red from the cleaning products she used to keep our house spotless. Those hands were always cold; the phrase “cold hands, warm heart” fit Jean perfectly.

She used to chase me around the house with those cold hands, putting them under my s...