Priscilla Jill Partida

Born in Houston, Texas, Priscilla spent her childhood in Houston before later living in Midtown as a young adult. In 2012, she and her husband purchased their first home together in Pearland, Texas, before eventually settling into what they lovingly called their forever home in Fresno, Texas in 2021.

Priscilla was a woman of strength, grace, intelligence, resilience, humor, and deep love. Those words may sound simple, but anyone who truly knew her understood how profoundly she lived them. Life challenged her early and often, yet she never allowed hardship to harden her heart. While many people become guarded after enduring pain, Priscilla remained compassionate, soft, generous, and hopeful. She believed people deserved peace, happiness, understanding, and kindness.

She possessed a rare ability to walk into chaos and quietly make things better. Whether solving a problem, calming someone’s fears, helping carry another person’s burden, or simply listening without judgment, she did it willingly because she genuinely cared. She never performed acts of kindness for recognition or praise. Being good to people was not something she did — it was who she was.

One memory captures her spirit perfectly. About a year and a half into dating, while driving home together after a winter night out, Priscilla noticed a homeless woman near a stoplight. She asked to stop at Walgreens, where she bought blankets, a pillow, drinks, food, and a backpack. After leaving the store, she found the woman again, stepped out of the car, handed her the supplies, and quietly returned. She barely spoke about it afterward. That was simply how she moved through the world: helping others because she could not ignore suffering if there was something she could do to ease it.

Priscilla was brilliant in every sense of the word. From elementary school through college, she earned an A in every class she ever took. As a child, she skipped the fourth grade entirely. She graduated from Rice University Summa Cum Laude with a double major in Economics and Management from 2001 to 2005 — an extraordinary achievement made even more remarkable by the adversity she overcame growing up. Coming from the Magnolia area of Houston and facing circumstances that statistically hold many people back, Priscilla refused to let hardship define her future. Instead, she used every obstacle as fuel to go farther than anyone expected.

In July 2005, she began her career at Shell Energy in Scheduling, Contracts & Accounting for Natural Gas. Over nearly 21 years, through relentless work ethic, intelligence, humility, and a sincere desire to help others succeed, she rose to become a Digital Transformation Lead in Natural Gas & Power. She believed leadership was not about status, but about lifting others up. Countless coworkers grew because Priscilla believed in them before they fully believed in themselves.

Though she often claimed she “didn’t really have hobbies,” the truth was that Priscilla built her life around experiences, connection, and love. Her hobbies were people. She collected memories the way others collect possessions. She loved discovering hidden speakeasies, trying new foods and restaurants, traveling across the United States with her husband, and taking in the beauty of the world together — from the dusty burnt-orange landscapes of the Southwest, to autumn leaves in the Northeast, to the towering forests and mountains of the Pacific Northwest. She also loved the Caribbean, including Jamaica, where she married the love of her life on May 25, 2012, and the Dominican Republic, where she created more cherished memories.

Priscilla lived with Type 1 diabetes for 40 years after being diagnosed at just 2 years old. Even as a child, she showed extraordinary independence and resilience in managing the disease. Yet despite the daily challenges she quietly carried, she refused to let it stop her from living fully, loving deeply, or dreaming boldly.

She adored animals and would have rescued every stray she encountered if she could have. Over the years, she and Daniel shared life with beloved rabbits and five dogs — Casper, Sassy, Layla, Storm, and Cooper — each deeply loved as family. Everyone who knew her also knew Casper held an especially special place in her heart. Her care for animals reflected the same tenderness she showed people: protective, nurturing, patient, and unconditional.

At the center of Priscilla’s world was the love she shared with her husband, Daniel Mares. Together for 18 years and married for 14, theirs was a relationship built not only on love, but on friendship, laughter, effort, loyalty, and joy. Together, they were playful, silly, and often like children together. Priscilla loved insisting she was the funnier one in the relationship — something Daniel now lovingly admits may have been true after all. She laughed hardest at humor that brought people together rather than tearing anyone down. She wanted everyone included in the joy.

More than anything, Priscilla made people feel seen, heard, supported, understood, and loved. She shared her wisdom freely, hoping others would feel better, live better, and become better versions of themselves. In a world that can often feel selfish and cruel, Priscilla showed that kindness, empathy, and goodness still matter. She proved that a caring heart is not weakness, but strength.

Priscilla is survived by her devoted husband, Daniel Mares, her half-sister, beloved family, friends, coworkers, and the many lives she changed simply by believing in people when they needed it most.

The world feels quieter without her laughter in it, but her love, lessons, and spirit remain woven into the lives of everyone fortunate enough to know her. Her legacy lives on every time someone chooses compassion, offers kindness freely, believes in another person, or creates joy simply for the sake of sharing it.