When I work at April Cornell, I constantly get asked if April Cornell is a real person. Well, she is. And last Thursday, I met her. She lives in Vermont and has a house in India where she works with the fabrics team over there to design the clothing and linens (she has a program that helps put the workers in India through school and they get paid well, too, so it's not like a sweatshop). Once or twice a year she goes over to India and this time, since she was leaving from the Boston airport, she decided to visit all her Boston shops. I was downstairs listening to the training porgram CD called Company's Coming when Rachel came downstairs and said, "You're going to have to pause that and come upstairs. April just called and she's coming in anywhere from a half hour to an hour from now." WHAT!? April, as in THE April Cornell? Ann, the manager, wasn't in that day, unfortunately, so we all ran around like crazy fixing the linens and making sure all the displays were picture perfect.

Then she showed up.

She's not like a rock star or anything, but it was exciting and special to meet April. She designs all the clothes and linens, writes books on decorating, and has shops all over the country (including Canada where it started originally). And she takes really good care of her employees, I think. We get paid well, we get amazing discounts, and she teaches us how to be good people, as well as good salespeople. And she was so nice. She had 2 members of her design team with her and they were also cool. There were hardly any customers in the store, which was good because we were able to talk and take pictures. She was highly impressed with our shop and said we all looked great in our (her) clothing.

So, now I can say, that not only does she exist, but I've seen her with my own eyes (and spoken with her, too!)