Mechtilde (Tilde) (Palacios) Garcia

Mechtilde "Tilde" Palacios Garcia, age 44, of San Jose, California (Former resident of Sweetwater, Texas) passed away on June 13, 2019 in San Jose, California from her fight with Pulmonary Fibrosis.

A memorial mass will be held 11:00 A.M., Saturday, July 6, 2019 at Holy Spirit Catholic Parish, 5ll West Alabama Avenue, Sweetwater, Texas with Father Nilo Nalugon officiating. Arrangements are under the direction of Cate-Spencer & Trent Funeral Home.

Tilde was born in Abilene, Texas on March 20, 1975 to Refugio and Concepcion Palacios. She graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1993. She married Lenny Garcia on April 2, 2005 in Sweetwater, Texas. After graduating from SMU, she moved to California and began her teaching career where she taught at Saint John the Baptist Church. Even though the disease affected her differently from day to day, she continued to be an amazing teacher. Tilde changed the lives of hundreds of young children in the nineteen years that she taught. As Lenny would agree, teaching was "their" life and her students were "their" kids. Her light-hearted nature, positive energy, sense of humor and contagious laugh, brightened the lives of everyone around her.

She left behind a loving husband, Lenny, and her in-laws, Val and Ofelia Garcia; four brothers, Lee (Paris), Rufus (Mona), Cleto (Veronica), and Martin Palacios; four sisters, Veronica Rodriquez, Nina (Luis) Quesada, Fifi (Jesse) Rosales, and Rita Palacios and numerous nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents, and sister, Maria Palacios, on May 3, 2019.

In lieu of flowers, donations made to Pulmonary Fibrosis, engage.utsouthwestern.edu