When Jean Paul Sofia was crushed inside the collapsing Kordin factory, his father was at home trying to surprise him by fixing a fault in his car.

When he called him to tell him all about it, his son did not pick up. He was already under the rubble, but his father was not aware of the tragedy which had just struck.

John Sofia opened up with Times of Malta for the first time, one year after his son was killed in a building collapse that has shaken the country and sparked political upheaval.

The timber factory under construction collapsed shortly after 9.30am on December 3 last year, burying six people and leaving 20-year-old Jean Paul Sofia dead.

CCTV footage indicates Jean Paul had been inside the building for around seven minutes when it collapsed and killed him.

A distraught John Sofia said he cannot recover from the tragedy and recalled the last day with his son.

John and his son Jean Paul during happier times. Family photo Right: John Sofia says his life has ended. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

He said his son usually took it upon himself to fix his own car when it needed repairs, but on that particular occasion, he agreed with his father to fix the fault together.

They spent hours working together on the car on the eve of the tragedy, but they did not complete the job by the end of the day. John suggested to his son he comes over the next day to finish the job, but Jean Paul said he was working.

John decided to wake up early the next morning and quietly completed the work on the car.

At around 10.15am, John called his son to tell him all about it, but the phone kept ringing. Jean Paul had already been crushed inside the collapsed factory for about half an hour.

Jean Paul was an animal lover. Family photo

Called to identify his son

At around 2.30am, after an excruciating 16-hour search, John Sofia was called by police and the Civil Protection Department to identify his dead son.

Jean Paul was found lying face up, with his left arm covering his face and with blood coming out the back of his head.

CCTV footage shows the building took just two seconds to collapse and John believes his son’s position reflect what he did in those horrific couple of seconds.

“He probably felt the building shaking, looked up and saw the ceiling fall on him and quickly raised his left arm – because he was left-handed – to cover his face,” John explained, with tears streaming down his face.

“When the building collapsed, he probably fell on his back, hit the back of his head, and was squashed between the debris of the collapsed storeys beneath him and the ones that collapsed above his head. I just hope he died on impact.”

John kept a lock of Jean Paul’s hair and his fingerprints, along with a palm and foot prints of his other late son. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

A lock of hair and a necklace

John still cherishes a necklace Jean Paul was wearing that day. With bits of debris still latched on to it, he keeps the necklace at home and does not show it to anyone.

He has also kept a lock of his son’s hair and fingerprints.

John goes to the cemetery at least once daily. It is a ritual he has not missed since the funeral. Every Sunday he drives to the Kordin site and stares at the spot where his son was killed.

He says he does not know exactly why he does it, but often imagines his son coming out and reuniting with him.

“I will keep going there for as long as I can,” he said.

John also goes to great lengths to recreate his son’s photos. He gleans as many photos as possible of his son from the internet and often tries to identify where they were taken.

Then he goes to that location and tries to find the exact spot where his son took the photo and snaps another photo, this time with his son missing.

The same picture without Jean Paul in it. Family photo

John has made a shrine out of his son’s bedroom. Family photo

Jean Paul in the countryside. Family photo

John recreates his son’s photos without Jean Paul in them. Family photo

Jean Paul sitting on a pellet. Family photo

Parents feel worse a year on

One year on, both John and Isabelle – Jean Paul’s mother – say they are in a worse shape – emotionally – than they were a year ago.

“Back then it was overwhelming. We were distracted with all that was happening, and we didn’t know what hit us,” the mother had said.

Repeatedly breaking down, John says: “I miss him every day. Every day I wait for him to come back home.

“I just wish to die, and if I knew that would reunite me with him, I’d wish it even more.”

Isabelle and John lost another son two years before Jean Paul was born. Their first son, whom they had also named Jean Paul, died five days after birth because he was born prematurely.

“When I lost my first child, it was already a tragedy. With the birth of Jean Paul life became meaningful again. But now with his loss my life became unbearable and meaningless once again.”

Jean Paul’s bed is now covered in a collection of photos that his father has been gathering for a year. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

Standing up to politicians

While Isabelle campaigned relentlessly in public, his father helped in all the ways he could but strived to remain out of the limelight.

That was no longer an option, however, when government MPs voted down a motion by the opposition calling for a public inquiry last July.

John was among the family members who called out Labour MPs from parliament’s gallery for voting against the motion and later, outside parliament, obstructed ministers’ official cars, as they were trying to leave Valletta. Footage showed the grieving father asking MPs if they planned to sleep that night because he had not slept in months.

“I never wanted and still do not want to become a public figure, but at that moment I felt I needed to do it for my son,” he said.

As the first anniversary of her son’s death loomed these past two weeks, Isabelle has found herself crying a lot, she said. Her only consolation is the fight for justice.

“If everyone had done their job properly, my son would still be alive,” she said.