By now everyone knows that we lost comedy legend Bernie Mac early Saturday. The Golden Globe-nominated funnyman passed away after a painful battle with pneumonia.

Mac’s wife, Rhonda and daughter, Je’Niece, 30, were with him during the final moments, his sister-in-law tells People Magazine.

“He opened his eyes on his own and looked at Rhonda. She called his name, and he opened his eyes and nodded to her,” Mary Ann Grosset says. “She smiled at him and told him, ‘Don’t leave me … ‘I’m waiting for you to come back.’ He shrugged his shoulders, and she said that’s when she knew he was tired. He signaled to her that his body was tired.”

“He had sarcoidosis, but it was in remission,” she says. “But because he had it, his immune system was compromised. He had an infection … He was on a new medication that suppresses the immune system, and that’s where the pneumonia came from.”

“What she (Rhonda) will treasure the most is the fact that she was his wife for 30 years – and not only was she his wife, but she was his best friend. She’s going to miss him dearly.”