The hospice encompassed all aspects of a home including the love, care, sanctuary, laughter and fun, she said.
"I was often asked 'How can you work in such a sad place?'
"My reply was 'How can you not?'"
There was so much love, laughter and care throughout the time that it was a wonderful place to work, she said.
Dr Lynn Twigley, who has been with Cranford for 20 years, spoke about the changes in hospice care over the last 35 years.
There is more of an emphasis on providing support for the whole family as well as looking after patients with a wider variety of terminal illnesses now.
With advances in medicine there is also often more of a sense of shock among families when a loved one comes to a hospice and staff had adapted to this, she said.
A recent addition to the team, Dr Martyn Horsfall, who joined Cranford 18 months ago from Adelaide, said palliative care was a relatively new but important branch of medicine.
"New Zealand is a country with an ageing population and the population of people in Hawke's Bay over 85 is predicted to double in the next 20 years."
Cranford Hospice chief executive Janice Byford-Jones said she was proud and honoured to be celebrating 35 years with past and present employees.
A former nurse, who started in 1986, ended the official speeches with a poem by author Rua Longley who died at the hospice in 2008.
The auction included Israel Dagg's signed Canterbury training strip, an All Blacks 2015 World Cup jersey and shorts signed by the 2015 World Cup squad, a framed Magpies jersey signed by the 2008 squad, an apron signed by Sir John Key, a floral lithograph limited edition print by Gary Bukovnik and wine from the first Mission Estate Winery Concert.
The hospice is now a stand-alone charity after being gifted to the community by Presbyterian Support East Coast earlier this year.
