She said Karpal appeared in her dream just three weeks before the May 9 polls.
“At that time, we were so stressed about when the election would be held.
“He was walking back and forth and was not in his wheelchair. He was walking like normal. He saw me, gave me an assuring smile and went away.
“I did not tell my children about this dream until we won Putrajaya.
“And on May 10, on my 70th birthday, we stepped into Putrajaya.
“Karpal is with us; he planned all of this. It was a double celebration for all of us,” Gurmit said.
Gurmit said the last time Karpal appeared in her dreams was two months after he died together with his trusted caregiver, Michael Cornelius Selvam, in a road accident in 2014.
“I heard our door opening and the sound of a wheelchair. I came down the stairs and saw him.
“I saw him and Michael entering Ram’s (Bukit Gelugor MP Ramkarpal Singh) room. I dashed into the room but he’d disappeared by then,” she said.
“Time flies, but it does not make me feel he is not with me. Half the time, I feel he’s still serving the rakyat. Even now, I feel he is doing the same. Maybe even up there.”
When asked if her youngest son, Mankarpal, 31, might swap his actuarist career for politics, Gurmit said: “Politics is in their blood, they are all Karpal Singh’s children, after all.”
Earlier, Gurmit and her son, Jagdeep Singh Deo, held Karpal’s 78th birthday celebration at the Little Sisters of the Poor home at Batu Lancang Lane, Air Itam.
Jagdeep, who is also Penang executive councillor, said Karpal had celebrated his birthday with the home’s 100-odd inmates for the past 20 years.
“I think my father was one of the veteran politicians who paved the way for the change that happened on May 9. Without them, the struggle that produced our win would not have happened.
“He was an icon, together with Lim Kit Siang and Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Mahathir might not have been friends with Karpal, but they come from an era when the work ethics and discipline were different.
“I am very sad that my father is not here to see the changes that he fought very hard for all these years.
“But I am sure he is looking down on us with a smile on his face, with a new breath of hope in the Pakatan government.”