Holding back laughter, Jacob Cachia hands a cup of coffee to the two women who have just penned his survival story.
He is training for the day he opens his own coffee shop.
“Jacob is planning on employing his family to wait on people, but we’ll be making sure he works as hard as us,” his mother Sarah said, reaching out for her cup.
Ms Cachia has just co-authored a book with columnist Kristina Chetcuti that tells the story of “the boy who lived” through the eyes of a mother who nearly lost her son to a rare brain infection.
When Jacob was recovering in hospital two years ago, he asked his mother to tell his story and spread a message of hope.
Now that his wish is about to come true in two weeks, with the launch of Jacob: My Titanium Man, he is moving on to his next project, which will be partly funded by the book royalties.
A former introvert, the trauma changed him into a social butterfly, and he wants to open a coffee shop. “Before I ended up in hospital I was studying for one of the most unsociable careers – an IT programmer. But now I’m saving up my salary so that one day I open my own coffee shop where I can meet people all the time.”
Jacob, who prefers to serve, rather than drink coffee, has been working at Café Cuba in Sliema for five months.
I want to practise my public speaking skills so that one day I can become a public speaker to inspire people, just like Malala
Meanwhile, Merlin Publishers will also be donating €2 for every copy purchased before the publication date of September 24, to go towards the coffee shop fund, Chris Gruppetta told this newspaper.
Although he has just started saving up for the cafe, the 17-year-old, known also as Titanium Man, has already devised a plan of activities that will be held at the shop.
“It will be a meeting place for other survivors – the headquarters of the support group Survivors Malta. I also want it to be a place to inspire people.
“There, I can practise my public speaking skills so that one day I can become a public speaker to inspire people, just like Malala,” he said. Glancing at his mother, he added: “It can also bring together comic book enthusiasts like me… and we can hold weekly meetings there.”
His mother laughed: “His wish list is becoming longer and longer and it’s giving me more grey hairs.”
She noted that the coffee shop will adopt the ‘pay it forward’ concept, where customers can pay for an extra cup of coffee for a family in need. “We were once that family,” she said.
Ms Cachia’s family is behind the group Survivors Malta, set up after realising that when they were going through the trauma, they craved to hear stories of survivors so that they could dare to hope.
“Like everyone else, I was close to giving up. When he was in ITU, I started talking about my son in the past tense. There were moments when we were unsure whether Jacob would be waking up the following day, but now he starts wishing people a happy weekend when it’s still Wednesday.
“It’s his positive outlook on life – always looking forward to a brand new day.”
This is the message of Jacob: My Titanium Man, which took two years to complete, during which Ms Chetcuti interviewed the Cachia family, including father Sammy, sister Chloe and the family dog, Peanut.
Ms Chetcuti explained that the book had captured the mother’s emotional journey through her own voice.
“We’re not promising a happy ending for everyone, but the book is a celebration of the boy who lived, which we hope becomes a source of inspiration,” Ms Cachia added.