Bernie Mac's wife tearfully remembers her final moments with the late comedian

Comedian Bernie Mac’s death in 2008 affected all of his fans very deeply, but none as much as his wife Rhonda. As the latest guest on Oprah: Where Are They Now, Rhonda McCullough shared her emotional last words with her late husband.

“I said, ‘Please don’t… please don’t die,’” Rhonda said, remembering seeing Mac in the hospital. “I said, ‘I’m here; I’m waiting for you; I’ll take care of you. Just don’t… don’t die. Don’t die.’”

Mac died of complications due to pneumonia on Aug. 8, 2008. He had long suffered sarcoidosis, a chronic condition involving organ inflammation.

McCullough then had to leave the hospital room, and was informed later that her husband had died.

“And I just, ‘What am I going to do?,’” McCullough remembered her reaction. “That was my whole life, was him since I was 16, and I just didn’t know what I was going to do. It’s like, what is my reasoning for being here now? What is my purpose?”

But McCullough did find a purpose, and that was continuing the work of her late husband’s sarcoidosis foundation.

“The foundation means to me everything that Bernard was and that he wanted, so I just really can’t let it go now,” McCullough said.

Watch McCullough’s tearful recounting below.

Oprah: Where Are They Now? airs Saturdays at 10 p.m. ET on OWN.