She found her own way of handing that same feeling to other people. “I got into the sweater business because of my grandmother,” she says. “When I wear a sweater I just feel at home. It is my comfort, and I wanted to share that love with others.”
The shop began small, a Nova Scotia franchise that mostly carried Ecuadorian knitwear. In Hilary’s hands it became something with no equal in the village. For more than thirty years, Amos & Andes has welcomed repeat visitors and loyal locals season after season.
She filled the shop with a global collection of traditional premium knitwear, including Dale of Norway, authentic possum-merino from New Zealand, Aran sweaters from Ireland, and authentic Cowichan sweaters hand-knit by the Coast Salish peoples of British Columbia. Hers was a shop that belonged to the mountain, not the tourist economy passing through it.
When the time came to hand it on, Hilary did not have to look far. One door down, in the same building, Lana Beattie had spent those same decades building a life of her own. She had come to Whistler and to Keir Fine Jewellery, where she worked for years before buying into the business, buying out her partners, and becoming its sole owner. She knew what it meant to earn a place here.
The two had shared an address for thirty years, so when Hilary thought about who might carry Amos & Andes forward, the answer was a few steps away. An outsider could have bought the stock; only someone who had been there all along understood what it meant. She said yes.
The shop is changing hands, but it is not changing heart. The collections still carry the luxurious fibres and quiet warmth regulars expect, in the village and online.
“I hope you can feel the warmth of Whistler firsthand,” Hilary says, “and keep the memory of this unique place close and warm, no matter where you are.”
For Lana, stepping in is less a purchase than the continuation of a friendship a quarter of a century old. She still remembers walking into the shop in 2001 and falling for it on the spot. “It wasn’t just the warm, cozy sweaters she sold,” Lana says.
“It was the warmth and comfort she brought to everyone she met. Hilary had a remarkable gift for making people feel like family.” “I feel incredibly blessed,” she adds, “to follow in her footsteps and continue what she has built.”
Hilary leaves behind a warmth that outlasts any season, woven into the fabric of a community that wrapped itself in her shop for thirty years. The address has not changed, and neither has the heart of it.
