"Stuck at home while recovering from mono, Dawn Zuidgeest-Craft received a gift at 7 years old that shaped the rest of her life: a microscope. She loved inspecting mealworms and leaves underneath the lens so much that her mother, Paula Wesner, predicted that her daughter would become a doctor."
"Zuidgeest-Craft pursued a career in health care years later, becoming a nurse practitioner and pediatric educator. She still planned to become a doctor, but she put her goal on hold while she raised two children. Then she remarried and had two more children, delaying her dream again."
"It took a wake-up call in 2020 - when her husband narrowly survived a brain hemorrhage - for Zuidgeest-Craft to review her bucket list. Zuidgeest-Craft's husband, Carl Craft, decided he wanted to make traveling a priority. Zuidgeest-Craft, in her late 60s, said she wanted to go to medical school."
"By diving into her retirement funds, Zuidgeest-Craft paid for a Caribbean medical school, where she's the same age as some of her classmates' grandparents. At the end of May, Zuidgeest-Craft, 72, will receive a doctor of medicine degree as her school's oldest-ever graduate."
A microscope received at age seven inspired a lifelong interest in examining living things. Later, a career in health care began as a nurse practitioner and pediatric educator, with plans to become a doctor repeatedly delayed by raising children. In 2020, a brain hemorrhage nearly killed her husband, prompting a reassessment of personal goals. Her husband prioritized travel, while she decided to pursue medical school in her late 60s. She used retirement funds to pay for a Caribbean medical school and became the oldest-ever graduate at age 72, earning a doctor of medicine degree.
Read at The Washington Post
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