Davalla Marlene Hardin, who was 48 when she died March 1, lived hard and fast, repeatedly succumbing to ruinous impulses and then trying to salvage herself only to prompt another sad cycle.
The elder of two daughters born to David and Nashalla Warlick, Hardin spent her childhood in Boulder.
In 1970, just before Hardin’s 13th birthday, her parents divorced. The girls lived with their father as their mother struggled with alcoholism.
Pressured to act as mother to her younger sister, Hardin grew increasingly restive. She dropped out of Fairview High School, then surprised herself by scoring high on the general equivalency diploma test she took upon joining the Army.
Twenty-six days into her training, she dropped out after discovering that she was pregnant and married boyfriend Davy Ray Hardin. Their son, Derek, was born in 1977.
Derek was about 2 when his parents divorced, granting their son’s custody to Hardin’s sister.
“She really became wild after she gave up her son,” said sister Nashalla Taylor. “I think it was because she was thrust into an adult role early on. It bothered her a lot that she felt like she had to raise me.”
Like a chronic dieter alternating between eating binges and punishing regimens, Hardin rotated in and out of treatment programs. Upon becoming pregnant with her second child, she resolved to get sober. She successfully avoided alcohol throughout daughter Christine’s early childhood.
“Davalla would do well and think that everything was going to go fine, and then something would come up that set her back,” said her sister. “With her, it was all or nothing.”
As Hardin succumbed again to alcohol, Christine went to live with relatives who eventually became her foster parents.
Hardin’s rotation between recovery programs and short-lived jobs combined with ill-advised relationships seemed to end when she found Chayah House, a Christian treatment facility.
“She was doing so well here,” said Chayah House director Lucy Bruser.
“Then three months ago, she said, ‘I’m 48 years old. I should be able to take care of myself. I shouldn’t be institutionalized.”‘
Hardin’s effort to stay sober lasted until a fatal drug overdose earlier this month.
A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. today at Avalon Funeral Home in Boulder.
Survivors include her parents, David Warlick of Durango and Nashalla Boling of Denver; son Derek Hardin Cross of Woodstock, N.Y.; daughter Christine Marie Hardin of Boulder; and sister Nashalla Taylor of Boulder.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
