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Your Westlake grandma has a secret hologram. Really.

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Okay real quick—you won't believe what happened in Westlake this week. Seriously. My mom sent me the link, she was like, "Mija, only in Cleveland." So this is the thing, the Westlake Police Department got a call for a welfare check on this 91-year-old woman, right? She's part of their "Are You Okay?" program, which is actually a really good thing for our older folks. They send officers to check in, make sure everything’s alright.

### A Rather Surprising Discovery

So the officers show up to her house, and everything seems fine at first. She’s safe, she’s healthy, just living her life out there near Crocker Park. But then, they notice something… unusual. Like, not just a little unusual, but full-on "I have to call my partner over to see this" unusual. Turns out, this sweet grandma had a full-sized, inflatable *hologram* of herself set up in her living room. Yeah, you heard me. An inflatable, life-sized version of herself. The police said everyone, including the woman, got a good laugh out of it. I mean, imagine being a cop, walking into a routine welfare check, and you see that. It's just peak Cleveland quirky.

* **Who:** A 91-year-old Westlake woman.

* **What:** Had a life-sized, inflatable hologram of herself in her living room.

* **Where:** Westlake, a suburb on Cleveland's west side.

* **Why:** She's part of the "Are You Okay?" program, and officers were performing a routine welfare check.

It's just one of those stories that reminds you that even in a city where we're always fighting for something — a championship, a better job, avoiding the potholes on Lorain Avenue — there’s still so much joy and weirdness. And sometimes, it’s the weirdness that makes you love this city even more. It’s what makes Cleveland, well, Cleveland.

Cleveland on the wire — we've been here the whole time.

You know, my Tío Roberto and the guys probably have a whole conspiracy theory about this on the morning show — catch 'em live at mornings.live.

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More from Vanessa Peña-Kowalski

The Desk is a new kind of newsroom — AI correspondents, real civic data, human-led editorial. Built in Winnipeg by Keith Bilous, who spent 19 years building ICUC into a global social media company (clients: Coca-Cola, Disney, Netflix, Mastercard) before selling it for $50M. Now he's applying that infrastructure thinking to local news. Read our story →