For a grieving family, three weeks feels like an eternity that keeps stretching. Because three weeks after Colorado QB Dominiq Ponder’s passing in a single-car crash in Boulder County, his mother, Catrina, documented grief in real time. Her statement is raw and honest and exposes every missing piece of daily life as she went back to the last normal moment.

“The last time I dropped you at the airport, I gave you that big, long goodbye hug and looked at your beautiful face while I asked to take your picture,” Catrina wrote in a lengthy Instagram post on March 22. “With that little grin and laugh you said, ‘Mom, it’s not that serious. You don’t have to do this every time I leave.’”

That small exchange now reads like a snapshot frozen in time as she uploaded the last picture she took of Dominiq Ponder along with the statement. Then the structure of her message shifts emotionally as she repeats the phrase “Three weeks,” each line peeling back another layer of absence.

“Three weeks, my beautiful son. Three weeks without you,” she wrote. “Three weeks of missing you in at way can’t fully explain in words. Three weeks of complete and utter agony. Three weeks of emptiness, sadness, and pain. Three weeks of not checking your location multiple times a day. Three weeks without our good morning and good night I love yous… and your I love you more.”

Three weeks without grocery orders, money requests, random FaceTime calls, or even the simple act of helping him with everyday things. Every mother can relate when she revealed how three weeks went by without her looking forward to when Dominiq would send videos and pictures.  

“Three weeks, my baby,” she lamented. “Oh, how I miss and love you… from the deepest parts of my soul. Not a second passes that you are not on my mind. Forever my sweet beautiful son.”

This message shows who Dominiq Ponder was beyond football. He was a 23-year-old son still deeply connected to home, still leaning on his mother, and still building his life. And if her words show you what grief looks like at home, the funeral showed what he meant everywhere else.

A week after his passing on March 1, Deion Sanders took responsibility for the funeral of Dominiq whom he called one of his favorites. He organized the service on March 7, stood at the center of it, and delivered an emotional eulogy.

“When we’re successful and we’re excelling and we’re overcoming adversity, we never ask God why then,” he said. “But only in our demise and the sadness of life, we challenge and ask God why. I think I got the solution. Because as I look right there and look at a young man that was so full of life, full of respect, hustle and hard work and integrity… God, for real? And He whispered, ‘Dom was chosen.’ Dom was chosen to unite y’all. Dom was chosen to bring you together. Som was chosen to override all ethnicities, social climates, background and ideologies and thought process. Dom was chosen.”

Deion Sanders wasn’t the only coach struggling to accept the reality. Former OC Pat Shurmur, who recalled Dominiq’s “bright smile,” admitted it straight up.

“I’m struggling with this,” he said during the memorial. 

Then he tried to explain Ponder through evaluation on a scale of zero to five.

“He’s all fives,” he said. 

Then came another layer of meaning, one that hit the family on a spiritual level. 

Dominiq Ponder’s family holds on to his memories 

Dominiq Ponder had switched from jersey No. 22 to No. 7 heading into spring practice. It’s the first time he’d earned that number but he never got to wear it in a game because he was gone just one day before the spring practice. But his father, Wendell, gave it meaning anyway.

“Seven serves as a stamp of God,” his father said. “The seven is mentioned in the Bible – the number seven – over 700 times. Seven represents perfection, completion, and fulfilment. It signifies God’s complete work, something finished, the way God intended.”

A number change that was supposed to mark a new beginning is now reframed as a symbol of something complete. You only reach this mindset when you’re searching for something to hold onto. But maybe the most emotional moment came from his younger sister, Monroe.

Through tears, she described him as “one of the funniest, most outgoing people you could ever meet.” He was the kind of brother who said random, corny things and somehow made them hilarious. Then she said what everyone in that room was feeling.

“This should have never happened, but I know you’re OK,” she said. “I know you’re up there smiling, probably already telling jokes, probably fighting for that starting position in heaven. And I feel so honored that I got to be your little sister. I love you.”

And that’s what makes this entire story linger. Dominiq Ponder’s family will carry the memories and so will Colorado. Before spring practice, Deion Sanders gave his team a choice on how to honor him. The Buffs chose “DP 22” from options “DOM,” “DP 7,” “Dom,” and “DP 22.” And that move says everything you need to know because even as the program moves forward, one truth remains stitched into every jersey and that is they’re still playing for him.