Dawn Zuidgeest-Craft, the mother of ABC meteorologist Ginger Zee, will be 73 when she starts her residency this summer.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — At 72, most people are starting to wind down in their lives.
Not Dawn Zuidgeest-Craft. This summer, she will begin her residency at medical facilities around West Michigan after graduating from medical school.
“I am totally setting records,” said Zuidgeest-Craft. “I will be the oldest ever graduating medical student in the world, as far as we could tell.”
She will be 73 years old by the time she is called an “intern” this July.
“There’s some people that aren’t meant to retire, it’s not part of them,” said Zuidgeest-Craft. “That’s probably me.”
Zuidgeest-Craft is not the only one in her family setting records. Her daughter is ABC’s Ginger Zee, the first female chief meteorologist at a major U.S. network.
“It’s most important that you know how inspired I have been my whole life, not just in what you’re doing now, but in your everyday, in who you are, and of course, still going after your dreams at this age,” said Zee in a video message about her mom. “I know the age is kind of the focus, and probably you don’t want that part to be, but it really is incredible to watch. I hope that everybody learns from this. The thing that you taught me is that you really can’t say “can’t.” Don’t let anybody tell you it’s not possible, because it is, and Dawn will do it. I promise. I love you, Mom.”
Zuidgeest-Craft has spent much of her life in the medical field, working for years as a nurse practitioner at West Michigan neonatal ICUs. After completing a neonatal nurse practitioner program, she started at what was then Blodgett Hospital in Grand Rapids in 1982. She helped build the nurse practitioner program at the hospital, training many others along the way.
“I had an understanding of both sides: both the nurses’ responsibilities and the providers’ responsibilities,” said Zuidgeest-Craft.
However, she always wanted and planned to attend medical school. At age 35, she met her second husband, who wanted to have children. They decided she would have children and reapply to medical school at age 40.
“That didn’t work out because we could not make a baby to save our lives,” said Zuidgeest-Craft. “I went through all the stuff that so many of my patients had had to deal with. We had our first daughter together at 42, and my next one was when I was 49. So, I didn’t get to go.”
In 2020, something happened that changed her perspective on time and how to make the most of it. Her husband had a life-threatening cranial injury. After he began to get better, they had a conversation.
“I sat him down,” said Zuidgeest-Craft. “I said, ‘Honey, life is really short, and you can’t guarantee tomorrow. What’s on your bucket list?”
She said her husband said he wanted to travel more. Zuidgeest-Craft had other ideas.
“I looked to him, and I said, ‘I still want to go to med school,’” said Zuidgeest-Craft. “And he goes, ‘You’re crazy.’ I said, ‘I know!’ And so, we agreed.”
At age 69, Zuidgeest-Craft began medical school in the Caribbean, fulfilling both her and her husband’s bucket lists.
“It was an island called Anguilla, which is across from St. Martin,” said Zuidgeest-Craft. “It was absolutely gorgeous. The fish and I became friends. It was wonderful. I had to pass the same USMLE boards. We had to have the same number of hours, we had to do the same amount of research.”
She then did clinicals in Chicago, West Virginia, New York and South Texas.
Zuidgeest-Craft said some people have called her “nuts,” but she plans to use her medical degree to practice medicine and bring wisdom to the industry.
“To me, it’s a privilege to be able to care for others medically,” said Zuidgeest-Craft. “Many of my patients will be my age or a little bit older, or a little bit younger. I’ve already lived. If I have a mother come in with a sickly child, I’ve been there, done that, know the stresses of it, and I’m capable of empathizing differently than a person who’s not had that experience.”
She says she wanted to go to medical school to simply learn what she didn’t know. She also wants to explore how medical training could be done differently in this modern age.
“I think that how we train people today might need to be looked at, and maybe just maybe, a new graduate of the medical school wouldn’t be so overwhelmed with debt or lack of actual bedside experience,” said Zuidgeest-Craft. “Instead of having a doctorate, nurse practitioner and a neonatologist, maybe we need something that blends and truly ladders that whole approach.”
She has applied for the record with the Guinness Book of World Records and is awaiting approval for her record.
Zuidgeest-Craft once told her mother she was going to live a long time.
“I am living to 96, and everything I’ve been putting out there has been with that thought in mind,” said Zuidgeest-Craft. “So, I’ve got a ways to go yet.”