A homeschooling mother of three shared the heartbreaking yet redemptive story of her sister, Tara, whose life ended in tragedy just 10 days before her 20th birthday — but not before a radical and unmistakable conversion to Christ.
“Tara’s story needed to be told,” Cherished author Camille Rebimbas said on a recent episode of pro-life activist Abby Johnson’s podcast “Politely Rude.” “I really feel like God wrote her story, every part of it.”
Tara, who had struggled with mental illness, rejection, self-harm and even satanism in her teen years, experienced a profound spiritual awakening just months before she was murdered by a man she met in a mental health facility.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.
Listen to the Politey Rude podcast
That man has since been convicted on all counts, but for the Rebimbas family, the pain of loss is not easily erased.
“We believe she died a martyr for her faith,” Camille said. “Based on conversations she had with me, and what happened that night, there’s no doubt in our minds.”
Johnson introduced the episode by highlighting the podcast’s emotional weight: “This week we have a special guest with us … she’s telling the story of her sister, an incredible story of life, redemption and conversion.”
Camille, now a stay-at-home mom and devoted wife, said she felt God urging her to write Cherished, which chronicles Tara’s life from childhood to her untimely death. The process began years after Tara was killed in November 2017.
“There was one day I was sitting in my daughter’s room, and I just felt like God was saying, ‘You have to get this on paper,’” she recalled.
The book also includes signs and dreams the family believes came from Tara after her death. “There are some pretty extraordinary ones,” Camille said.
Tara had been adopted into the Rebimbas family as a toddler, and Camille described her as “silly,” “spunky” and “so funny.” Despite a 10-year age gap, the sisters were inseparable. But everything changed in Tara’s teenage years, when a painful falling out with friends and lingering feelings of rejection from her birth parents sent her spiraling into darkness.
“She started cutting herself. She turned to satanism. We had no idea at the time,” Camille said. “Her lows were very, very low.”
The family prayed continually, even through seasons of fear and despair. Camille recalled one moment of utter anguish: “I was in my brother’s closet crying, asking God, ‘Why did you bring Tara to our family if we weren’t able to help her?’ And she walked in, looked at me and said, ‘You’re pathetic.’ It was chilling.”
Still, the family never gave up hope. Then, in the summer of 2017, something changed.
“She told me she couldn’t feel any feelings — happy, sad, angry — nothing,” Camille said. “That’s when she finally gave her true yes to God.”
Around the same time, Camille had begun a Catholic Marian consecration and invited Tara to join her, using the book 33 Days to Morning Glory by Fr. Michael Gaitley.
“I didn’t have to convince her at all,” Camille said. “We finished on August 15, and three days later, I saw a massive change in her. It was the fastest, most intense conversion I’ve ever witnessed.”
Tara’s faith became all-consuming. “She couldn’t stop talking about God,” Camille said. “On the last day I saw her, she apologized, saying, ‘I’m so annoying, I can’t stop talking about God.’”
At the time, Tara had been in a relationship with a man she met in a hospital psych unit. He initially presented himself as a fellow believer, but Camille believes it was a manipulative act.
“She told me that she wanted to be pure, and if he wasn’t OK with that, she would become a nun,” Camille said. “She said that over and over again.”
The night she was murdered, Tara was supposed to have that conversation with him, one that might have sealed her fate.
“I fully believe that she stuck to what she believed in and he didn’t like that,” Camille said. “He couldn’t manipulate her anymore.”
The man was convicted on all counts, bringing the family some measure of justice.
“We were outside the courtroom every day,” Camille said. “We didn’t know the details and couldn’t bear to hear them, but we needed the jury to see that we were there for her.”
Still, closure remains elusive.
“In the parking lot after, my mom and I looked at each other and said, ‘I thought we’d feel better,’” Camille recalled. “We were grateful, but she’s still gone.”
Johnson, known for her own dramatic departure from the abortion industry, asked whether Camille had been able to forgive the man who took her sister’s life.
“I would love to sit here and say, ‘yes, I have totally forgiven him,’” Camille said. “But I remember praying and asking God, ‘How could You expect me to forgive him?’ And immediately, I got the thought in my head: ‘Because I forgave you.’ I’ll never forget that.”
She added, “I’m not yet willing to forgive, but I’m willing to be made willing.”
Johnson affirmed the struggle: “It’s hard to hate those you pray for,” she said. “And Jesus just continues to knock and remind us to do the hard things.”
Camille said she hopes Cherished reaches a wide audience, not just Christians, but teenagers, people battling mental illness, victims of domestic abuse and those who’ve fallen away from faith.
“Tara’s story is for everyone,” she said. “Even people who don’t believe, because the things that happened during her conversion, they’re just unexplainable.”
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
