They are the Dunedin doctors, specialists, surgeons, anaesthetists, pathologists and nurses who until two months ago were strangers to her.
Then she was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour.
Now those medical professionals - along with the dentist who was among the first people to tell her she was probably seriously ill - are Ms Merzedes' favourite people.
In the short space of three weeks, she has had a malignant tumour in her left frontal lobe removed and is recovering in Dunedin's Isis rehabilitation unit.
She still has to have radiotherapy and chemotherapy and has been told the tumour will come back, probably within two years.
When it does, it will likely kill her.
But she says she will be forever grateful to surgeon Ahmad Taha and the others who have extended her life.
"I've never been treated so beautifully in all my life by the medical and nursing staff and the staff at Isis. Everyone has been wonderful."
Two years ago, when there was a possibility Dunedin would lose its specialist neurosurgery unit, the people of Otago and Southland were instrumental in ensuring it was retained.
Mr Taha was the first of three neurosurgeons appointed after the new structure was confirmed.
Ms Merzedes (60), of Doctors Point, Waitati, said the campaign completely passed her by.
"I didn't know anything about it. It didn't concern me.
"But now I am happy it was successful.
"When I was in ward 5B, there were five people with brain tumours of different kinds and I was only there for about 10 days ... It is just fantastic we have all these good people here for us."
Ms Merzedes had felt off-colour for about three years before her diagnosis. Her symptoms included a numb arm, falling to the right when she got out of bed, temporary inability to speak from time to time and pain in her thumbs, which she put down to arthritis.
Her doctor thought it might be heart problems or small strokes.
A routine visit to the dentist was the turning point.
"He sat me down and said 'you know, there is something wrong with you that is vascular.
"You are so ill. You have to go back to your doctor right now'.".
She was referred to Dunedin Hospital's neurology department and three months later, in mid-June, was examined by a neurologist and had a brain scan.
She knew something was up when the medical radiation technologist who gave her the scan would not say what the scan revealed.
"They admitted me to ward 5B, where I was told I had a left frontal brain tumour, which would need to be operated on as soon as possible. I was in shock."
It was even more of a shock when she was told she might have had the tumour for 20 years.
The surgeons could not operate for 10 days, until medication Ms Merzedes was on for her suspected heart problems had worked its way out of her system.
During that time, not knowing how the operation would go, Ms Merzedes, part of the Patterson farming family from Tarras, revisited her childhood haunts.
She also walked on the beach, watched the sun set over the Pacific Ocean, had a meal of crayfish and champagne and caught up with many family and friends.
Her surgery on June 25 lasted several hours and left her with a long scar held together by 29 metal staples.
She also discovered she could run, whistle and sing - all actions she believes the tumour must have suppressed for years.
She had no pain and vowed to accept her after-care treatment and her future positively.
Her goal is to be out of the Isis unit by Christmas, to demolish the building on her section at Doctors Point and replace it with a new home, to travel and to "have a bit of fun" in the time left to her.
