Charlie still has hope and is adamant in caring for her mother, Yolonda Thomas, as her health takes a turn for the worse. Loyal, she insists on sticking by her mother’s side until the very end. But when her school begins to notice Charlie’s absence, she is placed under a system of surveillance and Charlie will soon come to find that some decisions are outside of her control.

Promise Me is a film that is inspired by events while filming a documentary called The Woman I have Become (2008) about eight African, Black, and Caribbean women living with HIV/AIDS in Toronto trying to build awareness about their struggles in the Canadian health care system. The children of one of the mothers was apprehended by Child Welfare, because she was too sick to mother. A week later her mother passed away. Director and Co-writer, Alison Duke carried the story with her and wrote an article about it called The Missing 17 Minutes for the Project Muse journal. The story has haunted her psyche for years and recently, she turned it into a short dramatic script.