"Some moments stay with us forever."
Our paths crossed at the end of 2018.
I finally met an eternal best friend—
Someone I firmly believe I had known before.
Shayla Goldie Merryl, “Goldie.”
Goldie was completely devoted to her husband—the love of her life—Casey Merrell, and her three children at the time: Tate, Payden, and Autumn.
Earlier that year, in April of 2018, she had been diagnosed with sarcoma. By the time we met, she had already endured multiple surgeries—her first at the Huntsman Center—and rounds of chemotherapy.
We were part of the same church group, and I remember watching her and thinking, “What an amazing woman.”
What she had already endured was hard.
One day, I called her and asked if we could spend time together.
The rest is history.
We had many adventures.
In the spring of 2020, her fourth child, Summer, came as a complete surprise—right in the middle of chemo treatments.
Because of Goldie’s condition, they had to make an incredibly difficult decision about continuing the pregnancy.
They chose to move forward.
And it was both beautiful—and hard.
Even as her body carried the weight of cancer, she endured.
She overcame.
And she gave everything she had to her family.
This is just one moment of strength we will share.
You will see the strength of her family as she fought to stay with them for as long as possible.
All of that strength came from one place—
the moments she had left.
Because those moments were everything.
And they were all she wanted.
And that’s why this exists.
Some moments don’t leave us.
They stay—
in our memories,
in our hearts,
in the lives of the people we love.
My time with Goldie gave me moments I will carry forever.
But more than that—
it showed me just how much those moments matter
for families facing terminal illness.
In the end, it all comes down to this:
The time we have.
The memories we create.
The moments we share.
“Some moments stay with us forever.”
Golden Moments exists to help families create and hold onto moments like these—
moments filled with joy,
connection,
and memory…
even in the hardest seasons of life.
Our mission is simple:
To bring happiness, hope, and meaningful experiences
that become moments families will never forget.
This is why Golden Moments exists.
“A simple gift can help create a moment a family will never forget.”