Dr. Dawn embraces a bright new future

At 72 years old, most people are figuring out pickleball schedules or finally learning how to keep a sourdough starter alive. Dawn Zuidgeest-Craft is starting her medical residency.

Dawn first caught the medical bug at age seven while recovering from mono. Her mom gave her a microscope to pass the time, and suddenly mealworms and leaves became must-see entertainment. 

• Watching her daughter spend hours studying tiny worlds under the lens, Dawn’s mother made a prediction: “You’re going to become a doctor someday.”
• And 65 years later, she’s making it happen.

Between that fateful day and now, Dawn became a nurse practitioner, raised four children, worked multiple jobs, and spent decades taking care of everyone else first. Somewhere along the way, medical school kept sliding further down the to-do list, tucked behind carpools, diapers, mortgages, and life.

Then, in 2020, her husband narrowly survived a brain hemorrhage. Reminded of just how fragile life really is, Dawn revisited a question many people quietly ask themselves: If not now, when?

Dawn dipped into her retirement savings, enrolled in medical school in the Caribbean, and became classmates with students young enough to be her grandchildren. 

She joined beach yoga sessions, hosted ‘80s movie nights, tutored younger students, and pushed through failed exams and moments of doubt.

This month, Dawn will graduate as her school’s oldest-ever medical student. In July, she begins a three-year residency in Michigan in family medicine.