"I like to lift their spirits and be with them when they are lonely. I can't change circumstances but I can walk with them and lighten some of their burden.''
She said that was her favourite part of being a chaplain.
A humble Mrs Hammersley said her Queen's Service Medal recognised the good work done by chaplains all over New Zealand, and she was just lucky to be "the tip of the iceberg''.
Mrs Hammersley also helps as an interpreter at the Rotorua Hospital when Japanese tourists who cannot speak English are admitted. The mother-of-two moved to New Zealand from Tokyo in 1975 for a better place to raise her family.
She now has three grandchildren and another on the way, and said she would continue at the hospital as a Catholic chaplain as long as she was needed.