Now it is Thursday. Early a.m. about 1:00 a.m. We still are preparing to leave the ship at 6:00 a.m. We had the best care that could be available, the doctors and nurses went out of the way to explain everything that they were doing and why. About 1:30 a.m. things start changing, Ryan's vitals are dropping just a few numbers at a time. The nurse and the doctor are concerned about Ryan's output. With all of the IV fluids that they are pumping into him, not much was flowing through him. It appears that his kidneys were shutting down, next his vital numbers were still dropping a few numbers at a time. At about 2:30 a.m. Dr. Lindsay suggested that I call Lyman as things were not looking good. I had been through this before with Brad and it was so much the same (I think that it was harder on the doctor and nurse going through this). Before Lyman got there his vital numbers start jumping up and down on the scale from High to Low. Exactly what Brad did. Lyman got there and I said "this is so much like Brad". I think I knew that this was going to be the end. This was about 2:45 a.m. numbers are still widely fluctuating, up and down. Ryan takes one last gasp (he never did wake up, but in Ryan's own way he wanted us to be able to go through the canal). The numbers all flat line, all of his organs were shutting down. Ryan passed away at 2:55 a.m. just prior to entering the Panama Canal. Lyman calls our friends Linda and Dan and lets them know. They come down to the hospital to be with us, how special it was that they were there so that we were not alone. Thanks again to them for their love and being our support during this time. We are not sure, do we still have to get in Panama? We are able just to sit and spend time with Ryan. The hospital is on level 4 so we are down were there are portholes to look through. We check it out just as the pilot boards our ship and we pass under the Bridge of the Americas. Now we are on approach to the first lock in the canal. The doctor pulls Lyman out (Dan does go with him), they discuss what we do now. They call me over to discuss this also (Linda stays with Ryan so he his not left alone). The doctor advises us that the best thing to do would be to stay on the ship and finish the cruise to Port Everglades, Florida. Getting off in a foreign country could cause us to have to stay up to a month before returning to Utah. They do have a morgue on the ship and we can remain on board. WOW what a decision. But we have come to trust Dr. Lindsay and realize that staying on board would be best. He advised that this would give us time to grieve together. He also advises us that we can stay with Ryan as long as needed, but they would need to transfer him either before 8:00 a.m. or after 1:30 p.m. to avoid a lot of confusion with the crew. This was about 6:45 a.m.. Linda and Dan left and went to their room as we were getting ready to enter the first lock and they have been up since early that morning, too. We stayed with Ryan until about 7:45 a.m. and said our last goodbyes. Then we left him . . .to be continued