‘Miracle Boy’ survived Surfside building collapse but lost mom. Now he’s on long road to recovery with dad by his side.

He was the miracle boy pulled alive from the rubble — while the whole world watched.

Jonah Handler, whose dramatic nighttime rescue was captured on camera, plummeted 10 stories to the earth below when the Champlain Towers South condo famously collapsed on June 24 in Surfside last year, killing 98 people.

Jonah, who never lost consciousness as the building imploded around him, remembers every frightful second, says his father, Neil Handler.

A man out walking his dog heard Jonah’s shouts for help, then saw his small hand waving from the mangled wreckage of concrete, steel and glass.

“Please don’t leave me, please don’t leave me,” Jonah, then 15, pleaded. Through the dark, he got an answer that was reassuring and true: “We’re not gonna go anywhere.”

Soon rescuers were there, using Air Jacks to free him from the wreckage.

Minutes earlier, Jonah’s mom had rushed to his room after an ungodly noise split the air, sending the building’s tenants into a panic wondering if the powerful boom was an earthquake or maybe a bomb.

In those moments before the 12-story building came crashing down, Jonah and mom Stacie Fang huddled together in his bedroom. They didn’t realize it at the time, but that ungodly noise was the swimming pool deck collapsing into the underground parking garage below, the first warning of a full-blown collapse that would come in seven minutes, at 1:22 a.m.

Jonah’s mother survived the fall but died later at the hospital. She was 54.

Long journey ahead

Jonah, now 16, lives with his father in Champlain Towers North.

Neil Handler, still very protective of his only child, has told his attorney Jonah is “off limits” to everyone. But he agreed to talk to the South Florida Sun Sentinel about Jonah and his life after the collapse.

“It’s going to be a long haul for him,” Handler says of his son, who still suffers from PTSD.

“He got a triple whammy: survived a collapsed building, lost his mom and has survivors guilt after being one of only three people to walk out of that thing,” Handler said.

In the days after the collapse, Handler set up a GoFundMe page for his son that raised $98,986. More than 1,200 people donated.

“Jonah is a sweet and caring boy with an incredible heart loved by everyone who knows him,” his father wrote in his appeal. “As we are here feeling completely humbled by God’s amazing grace sparing Jonah’s life in what has been an unfathomable and unprecedented tragedy, any help you provide Jonah and his family with will be used towards his medical expenses, mental health, his mom’s funeral expenses, replacing personal items lost in the debris, his emotional healing and his future education and dreams.”

‘God bless you Jonah’

Donations were made by friends and strangers. Some called him a miracle, sharing words of hope and encouragement.

Here’s one message: “You truly are a miracle Jonah. Your mother will always be with you.”

And another: “I’m so sorry that you lost your Mom. Even though life is difficult right now, you are going to grow up and no doubt, make your Mom proud. God Bless you Jonah.”

And another: “The loss of your mother, neighbors and friends is an event that will make you stronger in your life work. Take your time and accept the help of others to heal yourself in body and mind. Many have seen your rescue and will always know your name.”

The tower where Jonah once lived has been demolished.

The mournful spot may be a constant reminder of that horrible night that forever changed his world. But it’s also home.

Walking through the fear

Jonah’s dad, who has lived for years in Champlain Towers North, says he wanted to keep things as normal as possible and that meant staying in familiar surroundings, even if it’s right next to the collapse site.

“It was difficult for him just to be in a building, let alone a sister building to the one that collapsed,” Handler said. “But I’m the type of person who believes you have to walk through your fears. I wasn’t going to move just to prolong the inevitability of him having to deal with it. He’s gone through the worst thing anyone can go through. He survived a building collapse and on top of that he lost his mom. And he was only 15. But all the prayers and support did help.”

Jonah is going into his senior year at Monsignor Edward Pace High School in Miami Gardens, where he played for the school’s junior varsity baseball team before the collapse of Champlain Towers South.

The fall left him with 11 compression fractures in the mid and upper back.

“He’s getting back in the swing of it,” his father said of his efforts to excel on the ball field. “He’s trying. He’s working hard. He’s not anywhere near where he was prior to this. But he’s working really hard to make a big comeback so he can play ball again. That’s really what he loves.”

Jonah, now a pitcher and outfielder on the school’s Varsity team, loves the game enough to dream of joining the major leagues.

“That could happen for him,” Handler said. “He has the drive. But I told him he has to have a plan for something else. You always have to have a backup plan.”

‘Life changed in a split second’

Handler had no backup plan for what happened on June 24.

He was fast asleep when his phone rang around 2 a.m.

“It was Jonah. He was pretty panicked and scared. He asked, ‘Where are you? Didn’t you hear the building collapse? Our building fell.’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’”

As the shock set in, Handler asked Jonah, “Where is mommy?”

Jonah didn’t know exactly where, but he knew she was stuck in the rubble.

“I said, ‘Don’t move, I’ll be right there.”

Handler rushed out of bed and got over to the building his son called home.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” he said. “I looked up at the building and it was gone. My life changed in a split second.”

And so did Jonah’s.

‘Miracle Boy’

What does he think of being called a Miracle Boy?

“I don’t let him hear too much of that stuff,” Handler said. “He doesn’t watch the news reports or read the stories. I tell him all the time that I don’t want him to allow that event to define who he is. I want him to focus on his goals and his future. I tell him everything happens for a reason.”

As for why Jonah was spared when so many others were not, Handler has no answers.

“That is between Jonah and God,” he said with the certainty of someone who’s fielded the question many times. “I have no idea. I tell him if he gets back to being the ballplayer he was or excels in life, he will be an example for people of how you can overcome terrible things. And he can go out and live his life and be an inspiration without ever having to say a word.”

Jonah continues to progress in his healing journey, his father says.

“When he first went in for therapy, they compared him to a combat veteran who had just come back from war,” Handler said. “But I started to see small little improvements in Jonah. Thunderstorms still freak him out, but not to the point where we have to leave the building and drive around for two hours until the storm stops. We don’t do that anymore. That is huge.”

Now Jonah and his father are working on a new mission: The Phoenix Life Project, a non-profit they jointly created in memory of Jonah’s mom and all those who lost their lives that day.

An inaugural fund-raising gala is planned at the St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort on June 25, the day after the one-year anniversary of the building collapse.

“He needs to take this experience and use it for something good,” Handler said. “And that’s why we started the Phoenix project. No matter how bad something gets, we can always turn it into something positive and help others.”

The non-profit will aim to create a network of therapists to help Surfside survivors and first responders still suffering from PTSD. As the project grows, Handler hopes to expand the network to help trauma victims around the country.

But before launching the non-profit, Handler checked in with his son.

“I told him the community is suffering and the only way we can heal is to help others,” he said. “I told him I wanted to do this, but I wouldn’t move forward if he wasn’t okay with it. Jonah said, ‘We should do this for mommy.’”

‘He got the best of both of us’

Jonah’s mom is never far from his heart.

“She was a great woman, an unbelievable woman with a big heart,” Handler said. “She’d give the shirt off her back for anybody. She was always trying to help people who were suffering. It’s like we are continuing her work.”

Jonah’s parents never married, but were bonded through Jonah.

“She was always present and there for her friends,” Handler said. “We didn’t always get along, but that’s one of the things I loved about her. I always tell Jonah he got the best of both of us.”

This fall, the families who lost loved ones in the collapse are expected to collect a $1 billion settlement. A judge will decide just how much each family gets after hearing from all the survivors.

“For us, it’s not about the money,” Handler said. “The money will never replace Stacie.”

As for all the news stories about the day Jonah’s world as he knew it ended, he’s not yet ready to read them. At least not now.

“If he ever is, I am here for him,” his father says.

Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com or on Twitter @Susannah_Bryan

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