Bernie Mac’s widow painfully recalls comedian’s final moment before death

It's been nearly eight years since Bernie Mac's passing, but now, in an upcoming episode of OWN’s “Where Are They Now?”, Mac's widow Rhonda McCullough is opening up about that tragic journey.

TheGrio Staff

Mar 16, 2016

It’s been nearly eight years since Bernie Mac’s passing, but now, in an upcoming episode of OWN’s “Where Are They Now?”, Mac’s widow Rhonda McCullough is opening up about that tragic journey.

“August the 8th, he had woke up. They said, ‘We’re going to put a feeding tube in him,’ and just everything went wrong,” McCullough said of the day in 2008 that changed her life, when Mac started to suffer complications stemming from sarcoidosis.

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“When they finally let me go into the room to see him, I was like, ‘Oh, my God,” she recalled. “He was just shaking, and his eyes was just, like, wide open, and he wasn’t really looking at anybody.”

She remained by his side and begged him not to leave her, but he ultimately passed hours later.

“I said, ‘Please don’t, don’t die,’” she said. “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.’”

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“It was around 2 o’clock that morning. I remember seeing the door open, and the doctor was standing in the doorway. I looked at her, and I said, ‘He’s gone, isn’t he?’ She [nodded].”

McCullough went on to say that it was difficult at first to learn to move on, but she has thrown herself into the Bernie Mac Foundation to raise awareness for the disease that claimed her husband.

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“What better way to have his legacy live on?” she said. “The foundation means to me everything that Bernard was and that he wanted.”