Does this strike you as odd that she's offloading personal problems to people she's just met? Over-sharing, is that the term? Would other hikers and holiday-makers really want to hear that?
I personally wouldn't burden anyone I'd just met with talk of all that, but it sounds like it must've been at the forefront of her mind and she needed to offload and verbalize it ASAP.
Which again, makes me question her state of mind. Everything she'd known for the last few years was gradually falling down and coming to an end and she was delaying, and delaying as much time as she could in the mountains, to such a late date it became too close to winter.
It does sound like Esther had severe problems facing reality and making forthright decisions. MOO.
I don't find it strange because it happens a lot. My husband and I are always flabbergasted by the number of times, while hiking far away from a trailhead, we stop off trail and someone decides they need to walk off trail and join us. Humans are very social. Solo hikers do this all the time, and as we are a middle-aged couple, we look "safe." We do not welcome such encounters, as we are both very private and our jobs are very social - we're there to get away from humans, frankly.
And it happens in and around wilderness areas as well. We camp in national forest (less supervised) campgrounds quite a bit. Last time we were out, in the fall before the pandemic, in a campground where the host was about a mile away, a woman approached us almost immediately after she and her SO arrived in their motorhome. My husband actually got up and left the campsite, deciding it was a good time to gather wood. I expected a brief conversation, did not invite her to sit, but she sat anyway.
Soon I knew way more about her and her SO than I ever wanted to. They were van life people, for at least half the year. Then came the attempts to find out who we were, what we did for a living, etc., etc. Eventually I said I had some business at another campsite (there were some people who had forgotten their food at home, I went to take them some extra food we had...this woman started to follow me, so I made it clear that I wanted to walk by myself.)
There is a lot more to this single event, but the upshot is that people approach strangers in the wilderness or in remote campsites, all the time. My husband has been asked by solo women travelers to help change tires, to help them start a fire, to help them figure out their tent. It's so common that when we see people's feet leave the common path and head into our campsite, we have our plans to avoid incoming conversation. We've also learned to seek out dispersed camping (thank goodness for its existence) and less traveled trails (believe it or not but people on the main trails at Grand Canyon are SO social...it's crazy to me).
Many people enjoy this type of vacation interaction, no doubt about it. Naturally, if a solo hiker is truly in distress, we help (we've given water, food, mylar blankets and navigational aid to others). If we think someone is in distress, we do inquire politely if we can help or we contact a ranger to report if possible.
People befriend solo women travelers more often than they do solo men, for the same reasons that people pick up women who are hitchhiking but might not do so for a man.
My husband also points out that it's unclear what Esther's immigration status in the EU might have been. Did either of them have settled status in any EU nation and if not...were they planning to live in EU regardless as long as they could? (Lots of people doing that right now, but it's stressful). House-sitting does not seem to be a job that permits a work visa for France, IMO. At any rate, Esther and Dan's entire lifestyle was under strain from the upcoming reality of the 90 day limit for tourists in the EU. Almost any couple would feel the stress of such an abrupt change in lifestyle.
