FOR Caroline Schilt, the pain of losing her 23-year-old son Jacob in the Shoreham air crash remains exactly the same as when it happened three years ago.

“Something will always trigger the grief, often when you least expect it,” she said.

“It can happen any time, any place.

“It’s not even necessarily at times like the memorial each year because at least you can gear yourself up for that.

“But it’s always there and you can be carrying on, doing your work, and there will be a trigger that brings it to the surface.

“You can’t predict when it is going to happen and then you have to get control. I think it will always be there.

“It doesn’t seem like another year has gone by.

“We can’t believe it’s three years – it’s almost like it happened yesterday.”

Mrs Schilt, who lives in Patcham, Brighton, with husband Bob and daughter Louise, 30, describes her son, a midfielder with Worthing United Football Club, as “very generous and kind, with a wonderful sense of humour”.

The family has become very close to his girlfriend Megan Duffy in the past three years.

Mrs Schilt said: “He loved his family and he loved Megan and, above all, he loved football.

“We were very, very proud of him and loved watching him play football.

“He was a people person – he made friends at school and university and when he was driving for Sainsbury’s, and he always made time for all of them.”

Jacob died alongside team-mate Matthew Grimstone, who was also 23, and was Worthing United’s goalkeeper.

Both young men continue to be “very much remembered” at the club, said its vice-chairman Mark Sanderson.

“We talk about them all the time and I still cry over them,” he said.

“People visiting the club still ask about them, which is nice.

“They will not be forgotten.”

The two men’s initials are featured on the club’s kit and their names are displayed on the club’s stand.

“They were quite a big part of the club – both quiet lads, which is unusual for footballers,” said Mr Sanderson.

“Matt was goalkeeper, and goalies normally lose their voices during a match because of all the shouting. But he stayed quiet. Jacob was little, but he was fiery on the pitch.”

Both the Schilts and the Grimstones continue to support the club and will be attending tonight’s match against Littlehampton Town in their honour.

Ahead of next year’s trial of pilot Andrew Hill and the subsequent inquest, Mrs Schilt has taken early retirement from her job as a teacher at Brighton and Hove High School.

“They are going to be momentous occasions and difficult times for us,” said Mrs Schilt, who will attend both with her husband.

“We want the trial and the inquest to happen and I took early retirement because I need to concentrate on them.

“I felt I would be divided in my loyalties if I stayed and the school was fantastic about it.”

Mrs Schilt understands why the delays in the trial and the inquest have happened.

“In a way, we are in a state of limbo, but at the same time, we have been well looked after by the police and the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service].

“They have kept us up to date with everything all the time so we know why it has taken all this time. So in that sense, we do not feel like we have been kept in a state of limbo.

“After the trial and the inquest, we do not know how we are going to move on. There could be a feeling of emptiness in a way, but also a huge sense of relief.”