GEORGE TOWN, June 28 — Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) victory in the May 9 election was a double celebration for Karpal Singh’s widow, Gurmit Kaur, as it was her birthday the following day.

The 70-year-old said her birthday falls on May 10, the day PH went to Putrajaya, so it was a double celebration for her.

“Karpal is still with us. He had planned it in a way that I had a double celebration. When we won, it was like a noose was removed from my neck that day,” she told reporters at a birthday celebration in memory of Karpal at Little Sisters of the Poor, an old folks’ home.

Karpal, who died in a car crash in 2014, would have turned 78 today.

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Gurmit said Karpal had appeared to her in a dream before Parliament was dissolved on April 7, as if to tell her that things would change for the better soon.

“We were stressed up with our country, we were talking about elections and about two weeks before the election was announced, he came, he was normal, not in a wheelchair, he came to me, smiled and went away,” she said.

Although it has been four years since his death, Gurmit said she still thought of him as being “away serving the rakyat”.

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“He was always away serving the rakyat so now, I still think of him as being away serving the rakyat or in his office,” she said.

She said each year, for over 20 years, Karpal would host a lunch for the residents of Little Sisters of the Poor on his birthday.

“I am glad that my children are now continuing on with this annual tradition,” she said.

Jagdeep Singh Deo, the couple’s eldest son, said they had continued with the tradition each year after Karpal’s passing.

He said they plan to continue with this annual tradition on his late father’s birthday, which is also his youngest brother Mankarpal Singh’s birthday.

He said Karpal was one of the veteran political leaders who had paved the way for the change that led to PH’s victory in the 14th general election.

“I am very sad that he can’t be here to see the change he had struggled and worked so hard for, but I am sure he is now looking down with a smile on his face,” he said.

Karpal, who was from DAP, had only witnessed the change in government in Penang for two terms, in 2008 and 2013.

Karpal was Bukit Gelugor MP from 2004 until his death in 2014.

Previously, he was the Jelutong MP where he gained the nickname, Tiger of Jelutong.