Esther Rantzen
Everyone in the Away Camp was a bit glum and missing home. Robert and Esther both said that they had considered leaving the camp for good. Carly was upset and spoke to Esther. "I’m missing home. The one thing I miss is Joe. I’m the only sad one. Or am I weaker because I’ve got water coming from my eyes?"
Esther hugged her and said: "I think you express it."
Robert said: "Nobody appears to be depressed. Everybody appears quite normal. But I know we are [depressed]."
Esther said to Robert: "I nearly walked in the middle of the night." Robert agreed. "And me. I was surprised everybody is so ebullient and I actually thought why am I here? Nobody’s said that. We feel upbeat and positive," he continued later. Esther agreed and said "I think we all feel the same actually."
She told camp: "In the middle of the night I just thought I’m not staying."
She later said: "I feel quite lonely and I realise so much my mood depends on people I care about and they’re not here. But the people here are very nice."
And Robert confessed: "I’m actually really missing my family. I have not been parted from my wife of 48 years for more than four nights."
But Robert and Esther both seemed to cheer up and he later added: "We’re very down and miserable but somehow everybody seems to have that stiff upper lip and getting on with it."
Esther said: "We’ve been through some tough times together. Life is less bad that we thought."