Despite Labour's Partygate poll bounce and six weeks of relentlessly door-knocking, Paulette Hamilton was "not overly sure" the people of Birmingham Erdington had elected her an MP.
So when she arrived at Thursday's by-election count at the local sports centre and "staff were all smiley", she was dumfounded.
"Then somebody said to me 'I think we've got this'," she says. But even then, Birmingham's first ever Black MP was not convinced.
"It just felt like 'you know what you know' but no one had actually said it.
"So when we went to hear the actual results, it blew my mind. I thought I had probably won by 30 or 40 votes or some madness because I just wasn't sure if that Labour vote would come out."
In fact, the mum-of-five had secured a 3,266 majority and increased Labour's vote share in the Red Wall constituency to 55.5%.
The 59-year-old, who will be officially sworn in as a Member of Parliament on Monday, is no stranger to being tested at the ballot box.
She has served as a ward councillor on Birmingham City Council for 18 years, most recently as Cabinet member for health during the pandemic.
The former nurse could be forgiven for finding the campaign trail a surreal experience, however, having lost her father to a heart attack barely two days after she was selected.
"He was a former factory worker and a Labour man," she said. "So when I went into local politics, he was really proud. He would come back from the high street and say 'I saw one of your your constituents and they told me what you did'.
"You could see it made him walk that little bit taller and that was brilliant.
"But the only sad thing now is that he won't to see me go to Parliament."
Growing up in a working class household of Jamaican heritage in 1970s Birmingham was not without its challenges, the grandmother-of-six acknowledges.
One schoolteacher her she "would not amount to anything, and that girls like me were destined only 'to have babies'", she has said. But another teacher, in the city's Handsworth girls' school, made her believe she could go far, and she went on to achieve A Levels, a degree and take up a career in nursing.
She has also previously revealed to the Mirror: "I've faced racism and faced issues where people have thought perhaps I wasn't good enough to do it because of the areas I've grown up in."
"I remember once a senior telling me if you are going to achieve anything in nursing, you don't just have to be as good as your white counterpart, you have to be twice as good."
It was during her time as a nurse that she married husband Dennis, who now runs The Hat Man store near the city centre's Bullring.
Tackling Birmingham's health inequalities, which have been laid bare by the Covid pandemic, will be among Ms Hamilton's top priorities.
It was something that kept her regularly in touch with former Birmingham Erdington MP Jack Dromey, whose sudden death in January triggered the by-election race.
She said Mr Dromey, 73, was not one of her mentors, but she deeply respected the former trade unionist as "a good constituency MP, the residents loved him".
"I keep thinking what would he say if he was here? I think he would be saying: that's what I like," she said.
"He was just genuinely one of those that wanted to see people get on and even though he's no longer here, the fact that there's a woman and a woman of colour in his seat... I think he would be really happy about that."
Ms Hamilton said, despite 18 years in politics, her passion to battle for her community is undimmed.
She said: "I always felt there was something I could give back. I've always spoken for other people, because I don't like injustice.
"And that's what I love about the Labour Party. It looks at the injustices that communities are facing and it tries to rectify them. Because at times people are struggling, and they need to know that people hear what they're saying."
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer congratulated Ms Hamilton on her election this week, saying: "Congratulations to Paulette Hamilton, Labour's new MP for Birmingham Erdington and the city's first Black MP.
"You've made history. As a dedicated community champion I know that you will bring security, prosperity and respect to the people of Erdington."
