A 69-year-old senator from Manitoba and his 23-year-old wife marked their first anniversary - the paper anniversary - Monday with a court document keeping the newlyweds apart.
Maygan Sensenberger has made headlines around the world since her arrest on a plane when it landed last Thursday in Saskatoon.
Police alleged she caused a disturbance on the flight, yelled about bringing down the plane and threatened her spouse, Senator Rod Zimmer. But a witness says Sensenberger was simply worried about her husband's health and wanted him to get help for breathing problems he was having.
Sensenberger's family said it was not unusual for the young woman to be worried about her partner.
"She gets upset easy if anything's wrong with her husband," Sensenberger's 68-year-old grandmother, Rita, said Monday from her home in Collingwood, Ont.
"He is quite a bit older than Maygan and she does worry a lot about him."
The trouble started, according to fellow passenger Scott Wright, when Zimmer started feeling tightness in his chest on an Air ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ flight from Ottawa to Saskatoon.
Wright, a former ambulance attendant, volunteered when the crew asked for anyone with medical experience to help the senator.
The couple was sitting near the back of the plane, he said, and Sensenberger was emotionally distraught.
Wright said it sounded like Zimmer was struggling a bit to breathe, although the senator told him it may have been caused by a previous medical condition.
The crew gave Zimmer some oxygen and he started feeling better, but his wife was still upset and they fought over his condition.
"I never at any time felt threatened," Wright said.
Wright also said he and several other passengers did their best to help. The crew asked Wright if he believed they needed to land early, but when Zimmer began to feel better, the decision was made to continue on.
Sensenberger continued to be upset, he said. She felt his medical condition was affecting his judgment.
"She did pause to yell at one or two of the other passengers who were peering over," Wright said. "There was the odd profanity."
He said Sensenberger didn't lash out physically at anyone but she did have a tussle with her husband.
"He was trying to calm her," Wright said.
Court records show police believe Sensenberger uttered threats against her husband and threatened to take down the plane.
Police and ambulance staff met the plane when it landed. Wright said Zimmer walked off the aircraft by himself.
Sensenberger was arrested and charged with endangering the safety of the aircraft and causing a disturbance.
She first appeared in court Friday but was held in custody over the weekend.
On Monday, the judge released her on several conditions, including that she have no contact with her husband. She was also banned from drinking alcohol.
Zimmer sat in the front row of the courtroom. He then left through a back door, as his wife walked out the front to a waiting car.
She is to appear again in court today.
Rita Sensenberger said said the couple met on a blind date. "They've been together for years."
Zimmer, a Liberal, was appointed to the Senate in 2005.
