🍒 Chapter 1: Initial Sparks

We’re starting quietly — with what we think we know about other people, before the story turns personal.

This first chapter begins not with drama, but with observation — the quiet noticing of everyday people we think we understand but rarely do. Through familiar scenes of grocery stores, workplaces, and church pews, Cece reflects on how suffering often hides in plain sight behind politeness, perfection, and routine smiles.

As the lens slowly turns inward, the story shifts from “what we see in others” to a personal memory from sixth grade — a seemingly ordinary school day marked by a sudden, unsettling interruption.

The episode introduces one of the central questions that will carry through Dried Cherry Juice: what happens beneath the surface of what we’re shown, and how do we recognize the wolves in sheep’s clothing around us — and sometimes within us?

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⚠️ Potential triggers featured in this episode may include, but are not limited to:

No graphic violence is described in this chapter.

Additional Series Information:

🔗 www.Linktr.ee/DriedCherryJuice

🔗 www.DriedCherryJuice.Podbean.com

Before the First Drop serves as an introduction to Dried Cherry Juice — a podcast-to-book series blending raw storytelling, dark humor, and reflective journaling.

This episode offers context, intention, and a gentle orientation for listeners before the story begins. Cece explains how the story will be told — scattered, nonlinear, and deeply personal — while inviting listeners to wander, backtrack, and take what they need in their own way.

It is less a chapter and more a doorway: a tone-setting conversation about chaos, memory, vulnerability, and why this story is being shared at all.

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⚠️ Content Note:

Additional Series Information:

🔗 www.Linktr.ee/DriedCherryJuice

🔗 www.DriedCherryJuice.Podbean.com

🍒 In Closing... Those Final Drops

In this closing reflection of Dried Cherry Juice: The Story So Far, Cece gently rewinds the tape back to where it all began — reminding listeners that stories are meant to be told, claimed, and owned. What first appeared dark, frightening, and “blood-stained” is reframed as something far less sinister and far more human: dried cherry juice all along.

This epilogue circles back to the central metaphor of the series — that perspective shapes everything. What we assume to be a crime scene may simply be life’s messiness seen through a different lens. Cece acknowledges that her story is not finished, only paused, and invites listeners to continue the journey with her as she keeps growing, healing, and creating.

In a heartfelt postface, she speaks directly to the audience: you are not alone, your story matters, and your breaking points can become your shining points.

Life is hard, unpredictable, and sometimes relentless — but it is also meaningful, beautiful, and worth showing up for. Cece emphasizes resilience, faith, and self-compassion, encouraging others to fight for their dreams, trust their path, and leave a positive mark on the world.

The episode closes with an invitation to listeners to share their own stories through #ThisIsMyStory — because at the end of the day, we are all cherries in the same basket, learning how to make lemonade from life’s tartest lemons.

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⚠️ Content Note:

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🩸 Additional Series Information:

🔗 www.Linktr.ee/DriedCherryJuice

🔗 www.DriedCherryJuice.Podbean.com

🍒 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 judgment, and refusing to let trauma define your future. Cece speaks candidly about being a former “welcome mat,” learning to demand respect, and finding balance between kindness and self-protection.

She weaves in personal symbols — especially the sentimental necklace she wears daily — as a reminder of faith, resilience, and memory. She also shares her plan to create a charm bracelet representing each chapter of her story.

Cece closes by reframing her past as fuel rather than burden: using both “floods and fires” of her life to create something meaningful, hopeful, and authentically hers — turning lemons into lemonade and cherries into cherry à la mode.

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⚠️ Potential triggers featured in this episode may include, but are not limited to:

• Death of loved ones

No graphic sexual content is included.

🍒 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 emotional overwhelm.

The episode also includes a hilarious childhood story of nearly driving a four-wheeler into a pond — earning her the nickname “Splash.” Ultimately, the chapter isn’t about astrology as belief, but as a metaphor for understanding herself: chaos, creativity, compassion, and resilience all coexisting.

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⚠️ Potential triggers featured in this episode may include, but are not limited to:

• Emotional overwhelm / sensory overload

No graphic sexual content is included.

🍒 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 why she decided not to share the texts publicly and reflects on what it means to walk away from toxic relationships.

The chapter then returns to her recurring dream about forgetting a combination lock — which stopped completely after she cut ties with her dad. Cece connects this to dream interpretation themes of identity, self-expression, and emotional testing.

She closes with compassion: she still loves her father, remains civil, but deeply guarded — and openly wonders whether reconciliation is healthy or simply reopening old wounds.

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⚠️ Potential triggers featured in this episode may include, but are not limited to:

• Verbal abuse from a parent

No graphic sexual content is included.

🍒 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 focuses heavily on her separation from Bryce in 2023 — not as a story of betrayal, but as a turning point that helped her finally recognize his unconditional love.

Cece describes how Bryce supported her through chronic illness, household responsibilities, and mental health struggles even while she was pushing him away. She acknowledges her own shortcomings, growth, and gratitude for her husband, while also emphasizing that relationships require ongoing work and boundaries.

The episode shifts into humor with Cece's playful “toddlers should run the world” theory before circling back to family love — including a lighthearted anecdote about her Nana and a flaming paper prank.

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⚠️ Potential triggers featured in this episode may include, but are not limited to:

• Marital separation (temporary)

No graphic sexual content is included.

🍒 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 chihuahuas: Zoie, Zeus, and their accidental litter that produced the “twins,” Phoenix and Pennie. She recounts both the humor and heartbreak of pet parenthood — from the chaotic “stuck dogs” incident to Zoie’s unexpected death from severe anemia.

The chapter then returns to Cece's own health: severe anemia, a failed endometrial ablation, and her decision to have a partial hysterectomy. She describes dramatic post-surgery weight loss, the frustration of trying to lose weight with chronic illness, and the relief of finally feeling better physically — even while grieving the permanent loss of biological motherhood.

She closes with gratitude for her many nieces and nephews and a compassionate reminder to be kind to people whose health struggles you can’t see.

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⚠️ Potential triggers featured in this episode may include, but are not limited to:

• Infertility and pregnancy loss

No graphic sexual content is included.

🍒 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 results, how early detection likely saved her life, and why she now advocates for regular blood tests. Cece outlines her treatment — a daily oral chemotherapy pill — and what remission means for her.

The chapter balances fear, gratitude, and reflection: recognizing how an inconvenient blood test became life-saving, and how living with chronic cancer reshaped her perspective on health and time.

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⚠️ Potential triggers featured in this episode may include, but are not limited to:

• Cancer diagnosis

No graphic sexual content is included.

🍒 Chapter 24: Paranormal Experiences

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

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 left it.

Later, while recording her in-laws’ dog whining, an unexplained disembodied voice saying one of her dog’s names appears on the audio — immediately stopping the barking.

She also shares smaller “glitch in the matrix” moments, including a mysterious childhood photo of herself with a girl she doesn’t recognize. The chapter ends without firm conclusions, leaving space for curiosity rather than certainty.

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⚠️ Potential triggers featured in this episode may include, but are not limited to:

• Fear of home intrusion

No graphic sexual content is included.