DRIED CHERRY JUICE SERIES

🍒 Chapter 30: Cherry à la Mode

In the series finale, Cece reflects on grief, loss, and meaning after the deaths of Zoie, her Nana, and later her Papaw. She describes Native American traditions around death, the symbolic meaning of owls in her family, and how repeated losses shaped her perspective on life.

The chapter becomes a collection of hard-earned wisdom: trusting your gut, setting boundaries, practicing empathy, avoiding jud...

🍒 Chapter 29: Fire & Water

Cece takes a reflective detour into astrology, exploring her identity as a Pisces–Aries cusp — “fire and water.” She uses this framework to understand her emotional depth, empathy, impulsivity, and inner contradictions.

Blending humor with insight, she explains how being both dreamy (Pisces) and fiery (Aries) has shaped her life: deep intuition, intense feelings, boundary-setting, and occasional emot...

🍒 Chapter 28: Fever Dreams

This episode revisits Cece’s complicated relationship with her father through the lens of a painful Christmas confrontation. After asking him not to joke about her mother, he responds by cutting off contact, sending cruel texts, and ultimately telling her he never loved her.

Supported by her husband, Cece chooses not to engage in the conflict and instead focuses on boundaries and self-worth. She explains...

🍒 Chapter 27: Where We Go from Here

Cece reflects on early marriage, childhood neglect, and emotional healing. She unpacks the statistic that marriages before age 22 often fail — and how she nearly defied the odds for nearly two decades.

She explores how growing up in an unsafe emotional environment shaped her relationships: seeking validation, people-pleasing, and trying to “earn” love rather than receive it freely. The chapter f...

🍒 Chapter 26: Call Me Infertile Myrtle

This episode centers on Cece's journey through infertility, chronic illness, and redefining what “motherhood” means. After years of trying to conceive, medical testing, and fertility treatments, she learns that PCOS combined with lupus made pregnancy medically unsafe — especially given her leukemia treatment.

Rather than becoming parents to human children, Cece builds a family through beloved...

🍒 Chapter 25: Internal Inferno

In this deeply personal episode, Cece describes the day she unexpectedly learned she had a rare form of chronic leukemia. What began as a routine medication appointment turned into an urgent call from her doctor after abnormal bloodwork revealed an extremely high white blood cell count.

She explains her diagnosis in clear, relatable terms, including what “normal” counts look like versus her own resul...

🍒 Chapter 24: Paranormal Experiences

This episode takes a tonal turn into the strange, eerie, and unexplained, as Cece recounts two major paranormal experiences:

1. Waking from a nap to violent knocking on her locked bedroom door while all four dogs reacted in fear — followed by what appeared to be a TV remote sliding under the door, leading her to call the police. Officers found no intruder and the remote was exactly where she ...

🍒 Chapter 23: Flooding of Mental Health Issues

This episode focuses on Cece's mental health history and neurodivergence. She reflects on growing up in an anxious, high-stimulation world and shares memories of her Nana’s understanding of depression as a true chemical imbalance.

Cece explains her diagnoses over time — including ADHD, learning differences in math and science, OCD tendencies, bipolar II, major depressive disorder, gen...

🍒 Chapter 22 — Contagion, Chaos, & Conflagrations

Cece transitions from newlywed life into the onset of serious medical challenges. She first reflects on her early work history and shares a heartwarming story about receiving a workplace award for her “contagious positive attitude.” Despite this, her health worsened, leading her to step back from employment and become a homemaker while seeking answers.

This episode introduces t...

🍒 Chapter 21: Juggling Losses & Gains • Part 2

This episode moves from grief into the reality of planning a wedding amid family division. Cece describes how most of her father’s side of the family chose not to attend after her dad refused to walk her down the aisle. She reflects on her mother’s extraordinary effort to help fund and plan the wedding while working multiple jobs.

The story then shifts into the chaotic — and often...

🍒 Chapter 20: Juggling Losses & Gains • Part 1

In one of the most emotionally complex chapters, Cece prepares for her wedding while grieving a sudden family tragedy. Just days before the ceremony, her future brother-in-law is killed by a drunk driver, casting a shadow over what should have been a joyful week. Cece reflects on comforting her young niece at the funeral and honoring her future sister-in-law’s wishes to continue w...

🍒 Chapter 19: Ceremonies, Conflicts, & Conflagrations

This episode chronicles the final rupture of Cece's childhood home. After repeated conflict, her mother asks her father to leave and files for divorce, obtaining emergency restraining orders. Cece describes hiding her truck at Bryce’s house, the anxiety of hearing the garage door open, and a frightening incident where her father attempts to enter the house despite changed l...

🍒 Chapter 18: The Boiling Point • Part 2

Cece returns home hoping for resolution — and instead encounters further escalation. This episode explores a traumatic breakdown in family dynamics: arguments, a panic attack, a physical altercation with her brother, and the removal of her car keys to prevent her from leaving. Family counseling follows, but her father refuses to take responsibility for his behavior, deepening the rift. The ...

🍒 Chapter 17: The Boiling Point • Part 1

Cece blends warmth and tension in this episode as she recounts choosing her beloved chihuahua Zoie — the “mean puppy” who perfectly matched her personality — and shares humorous memories of early adulthood, Blockbuster dates, and the chaos of a house full of pets. Beneath the humor, conflict is escalating at home: double standards around responsibility, her father’s controlling behavior, an...

🍒 Chapter 16: A Not-So-Steady Flow

Cece centers this episode on the reality of living with severe menstrual symptoms as a teenager with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Cece describes the physical toll of unpredictable, extremely painful periods, missed school and work, and recurring anemia from blood loss. She also reflects on how these experiences intersected with her relationship with Bryce, who supported her practically and...

🍒 Chapter 15 — Kindling an Eternal Flame

Cece’s friendship with Bryce slowly blossoms into romance. Despite workplace concerns, they secretly date before becoming public — culminating in a surprise proposal on a scenic bridge. Cece begins balancing wedding planning with new jobs and early signs of health problems that will soon intensify, setting the stage for the next phase of her story.

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⚠️ Potential triggers featured in this e...

🍒 Chapter 14: Burn

After a devastating car wreck that nearly required the Jaws of Life, Cece confronts the fallout: hospital staff, family tension, and Garrett’s betrayal. She learns he left the scene to get high, and later discovers his “promise ring” was recycled. The chapter explores betrayal, reputation, control at home, and how Cece quietly begins planning her independence.

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⚠️ Potential triggers featured in this episode may...

🍒 Chapter 13: Crash

Cece details the emotional breakup with Toby during his basic training and her rebound relationship with Garrett. As she begins working at a major hospital, she forms important friendships — including with Bryce — while still secretly dating Garrett against her father’s wishes. The chapter builds toward the night of a serious car accident that changes everything.

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⚠️ Potential triggers featured in this episode...

🍒 Chapter 12: Baby Got Back... Draft

Cece recounts her first serious love with Toby, navigating secrecy, teenage sexuality, and strict parental rules that offered no education or contraception beyond “don’t do it.” When rumors reach her mother, Cece panics and backtracks. She describes sneaking around, pregnancy scares, and how control at home shaped her choices — ending with Toby leaving for the military and gifting her a promise...