Nanny was a friend, ‘jewel’

Martha Ovalle had a number of different names at the Stokes household in Corona del Mar. The family’s older son, Austin, couldn’t pronounce “Martha” when he began speaking, so he called her “Kika” — a nickname that stuck for years. When the younger son, Spencer, didn’t do so well with “Kika” either, he simply dubbed her “Gaga.”

Whatever her name, Ovalle was an integral part of the family during the 4 1/2 years that she worked as its nanny. So when the Guatemalan immigrant died Friday morning in a road accident in Newport Beach, the Stokeses believed they had lost much more than an employee.

“She was a jewel,” said Jeff Stokes, a real estate broker. “Yesterday was just the worst day of our lives.”

Ovalle, 32, was crossing Westcliff Drive on foot at 8:30 a.m. Friday when an SUV struck her on the crosswalk. The driver, 41-year-old Martin Kuehl of Costa Mesa, was taken into custody for an unrelated parole violation.

Police said Friday that drugs and alcohol were not involved and that the driver was not speeding, and the exact cause of the collision remained unclear.

Kimberly Stokes, a stay-at-home mom who employed Ovalle to help her around the house and take her boys on outings, said there was also some confusion Friday morning over whether Ovalle had been the one killed; at least one of her friends, she said, believed it had been another family’s nanny. When Stokes and her husband arrived at the scene, however, they recognized Ovalle’s shoes and bag on the ground.

At the time, she said, Ovalle had been heading to another family’s house, where she worked part time; the Stokes family had reduced her work schedule to save expenses. Kimberly Stokes knew something was wrong when she and the nanny’s other employer began calling Ovalle’s cellphone and got no answer.

“She’s never called in sick a day, never been late,” Kimberly Stokes said.

Right now, Jeff Stokes said, he and his family are making arrangements to return Ovalle’s body to her family in Guatemala. Some of their friends have offered to chip in funds, he said, but the family will cover all the costs if necessary.

He also has a crystal-clear memory of the last time he saw Ovalle. She had baby-sat for Austin and Spencer Thursday night when the Stokeses went out to dinner, and afterward, Jeff Stokes drove her back to her Costa Mesa apartment. Before leaving, she told the boys she loved them, and the older one replied with the same.

“I say she’s our nanny, but she’s really our friend and our confidant,” Jeff Stokes said. “She’s a member of the family, like a sister or an aunt.”

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at michael.miller@latimes.com.