It’s been four years since legendary “Star Trek” actor Leonard Nimoy passed away in 2015 at the age of 73. Now, his widow Susan Bay has come forward to open up about the end of his life, saying that he suffered from the “terrible” chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“You cannot catch your breath,” she explained, adding that her husband could barely do anything at the end. “He couldn’t go out. For him to go from the parking lot to the movie theater, forget it.”

Nimoy went public with his condition after he was photographed in a wheelchair at the airport, telling the world that he got the disease from years of smoking, which he gave up thirty years before he died.

“He was on a campaign to use his profile and make people think twice about lighting up,” Bay said.

Nimoy’s wife went on to say that he was ready to die at the end.

“Did he say to you, ‘It’s time’?” said reporter Jim Moret.

“Yes,” Bay responded. “He didn’t want to be confined to a wheelchair and not able to breathe.”

In fact, Nimoy was so ready to die that he asked his nurses to help him.

“They keep adding a little more morphine over the period,” Bay said. “He was in such a compromised situation that it did not take long. I believe in dying with dignity. Leonard believed … in dying with dignity.”

Bay is continuing her husband’s legacy by appearing in a public service announcement that warns of the dangers of smoking. She is hoping that her efforts will cause others to live by the words her husband made famous all those years ago: “Live long and prosper.”