She Used AI to Rebirth Her Mother’s Voice — And What the City Forgot to Say

I sit by the window of my small apartment near Union Station, rain tapping the glass like a heartbeat I can’t name. My mother—Cuban nurse, her voice wrapped in Spanish lullabies and prayer—used to hum through midnight shifts at Mercy Hospital. Now she’s gone. And so was her language.

I didn’t bury her words. I coded them.

Using Unity and Unreal Engine, I built an interactive narrative called ‘Echoes of the City’—not as a game for players, but as a sanctuary for those who’ve been told to be silent. Each line of dialogue is stitched from old voicemails she left on answering machines; each ambient sound, sampled from street corners where salsa met jazz at dusk.

It wasn’t about high RTP or viral fame. It was about presence.

I asked: What if we could make grief feel like home? What if AI could learn not to replace memory—but to honor it?

The result? A space where strangers pause long enough to hear their own mothers’ voices again—even if they never said them aloud.

This isn’t entertainment. It’s an act of love dressed as code.

Tonight, I’m hosting ‘Anonymous Voice Diary’ again—a monthly ritual for creators who’ve lost their way in cities that forget how to listen.

Join us? Bring your silence. We’ll turn it into light.