For many people, retirement marks the point where working life finally begins to slow down.

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For Dawn Zuidgeest-Craft, it was the moment she decided to pursue the career she’d dreamed about for decades.

The 72-year-old mother of ABC News meteorologist Ginger Zee graduated from medical school, becoming the oldest-ever graduate from her school.

And rather than putting her feet up after receiving her qualification, Zuidgeest-Craft began a three-year residency at a hospital in Michigan in July – the same month she turned 73.

“I am totally setting records,” she told WZZM.

Zuidgeest-Craft believes her achievement could extend far beyond her own medical school, adding that she could become “the oldest ever graduating medical student in the world”.

She is already in contact with Guinness World Records.

“There’s some people that aren’t meant to retire, it’s not part of them,” she added. “That’s probably me.”

Her journey towards becoming a doctor has been decades in the making.

In her early 30s, Zuidgeest-Craft was working as a nurse practitioner while raising two children, including Zee. At the time, she planned to become a doctor before turning 40.

Life, however, took her down a different path after she remarried and later had another two children.

“That [going to med school] didn’t work out because we could not make a baby to save our lives,” she said. “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.”

The ambition to become a doctor never completely disappeared.

Around six years ago, her husband survived a brain haemorrhage, an experience which prompted Zuidgeest-Craft to reconsider what she still wanted to accomplish.

“It hit me like, ‘Oh, my God, this life is short,’ ” she told The Washington Post.

After retiring from nursing, she enrolled at a medical school in the Caribbean at the age of 69.

She subsequently completed clinical rotations across Chicago, West Virginia, New York and Texas, before reaching the milestone she had once hoped to achieve more than three decades earlier.

Her daughter has now paid tribute to the determination behind the remarkable journey.

“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,” Zee said in a video message.

“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,” Zee continued. “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.”

For Zuidgeest-Craft, a dream delayed by decades has ultimately proved to be a dream that never had an expiry date.

Featured image credit: 13 ON YOUR SIDE / YouTube