Isabelle Bonnici, the mother of construction site victim Jean Paul Sofia, has urged people of whatever political allegiance to unite as one people for a vigil for her son on Monday.
Sofia died under tons of rubble when a building under construction in Corradino collapsed last December. Bonnici has since been campaigning for the holding of a public inquiry but Labour MPs on Wednesday defeated an Opposition motion for such an inquiry to be held.
In a video interview issued by her campaign group, Bonnici said she had gone through a wave of emotions in the wake of the vote in parliament.
She felt emboldened and fearful at the same time, wondering what she had got herself into, but she rebuilt her courage when she remembered her son.
Jean Paul, she said, was best known for his kindheartedness. "He knew how to love, he loved life, he loved animals a lot, he loved music, he loved to joke, he loved cars, he loved his friends, he loved going out, spending money, he was full of life and he loved to live. He kept saying how much he loved me, he filled my life."
And had somebody close to him died in the same circumstances as he had, she was sure that he would have done the same thing as she was doing, Bonnici insisted. "I am doing what he would have done."
She stressed that her call for a public inquiry was not about money and had nothing to do with politics.
Jean Paul Sofia, 20, died when a building under construction collapsed."This is about making sure that my son did not die in vain. I do not want others to go through this," she said.
It was insulting, she added, that some had tried to link her to politics. She, as a mother, knew what was best for her son and was acting for her son. And she had gone to the government first.
Bonnici expressed her gratitude for the 'overwhelming' support she had received from people across the political divide.
"The people have been uniting. I want to see unity as this affects us all," she said.
She pointed out that the building collapse which killed her son was unusual in that the building fell on its own, rather than because of works on adjoining sites.
"People have a right to know what happened. Greed killed my son and ruined my life and that of his father. The state let down my son, don't I have a right to get answers, to have closure?" she asked.
She said she hoped the magisterial inquiry would establish who was responsible for the collapse, but she was calling for a public inquiry because everyone agreed that the system governing construction was not working and needed to be investigated. Had an inquiry been held when Miriam Pace died, perhaps she would still have her son now.
"But what we had were empty words" she said.
"I cannot understand why they are saying no to the holding of a public inquiry, it makes you think there is something to hide, otherwise, were I the prime minister, I would have appointed it," she said.