You gotta share this: Trooper helps kids after parents killed in crash

"Smart, funny, intelligent, patient", said Trooper Nathan Bradley.

The kids then were taken back to the trooper's post, where they watched a movie.

The accident occurred in Morgan County, Ga., less than a mile from where Donald and Crystal Howard had left their home to buy more face paint and candy. They were killed instantly when their SUV flew off the road and hit a tree, NBC affiliate WXIA reported. Trooper Bradley chose to care for the children until their grandmother arrived from Sarasota, Florida, which is a seven hour trip.

According to WXIA, Bradley has started a GoFundMe page to have Donald and Crystal buried in Florida.

Bradley was among the officers tasked with contacting the rest of the Howard family, which he quickly discovered included kids ranging in age from 6 to 13 (shown above). "He just went to me and hugged me and just squeezed me", Bradley said. "I care about them a lot". But when he arrived at their home, he found four kids dressed in full costume and ready to go out trick-or-treating.

"I just, I just couldn't bear it to break the news to them".

"I have the best supervisors in the state", he writes, "so I wasn't surprised when he told me that he was bringing his wife and their son to meet us".

"We hoped that they would then relate the tragedy to November 1st, rather than Halloween", he wrote.

"I wanted to preserve these kids' Halloween and the ones to come", he wrote in the GoFundMe statement, which was also shared on Facebook by the Georgia Department of Public Safety. I suggested that I'd care for them until their family was able to.

The children took showers and slept in the patrol station's bedrooms.

After their grandmother Stephanie Oliver arrived the next morning, she delivered the heartbreaking news.

Instead of just doing his job and telling the kids what happened, with their grandmother's permission, the trooper treated the kids to one more night of innocence.

"Our objective was to preserve future holidays as far as Halloween goes", he told WSBTV.

On Tuesday, he said he heard from the eldest son that the transportation of the parents' remains and other funeral costs would amount to $7,000. She had wished for my call to be a cruel Halloween Prank. He and his siblings read each of your messages. However, Bradley said the teen was quiet and helped him quiet the other kids' questions during the night.

"I'm am astonished by the support of this family", Bradley wrote as the donations flooded in.

The story has sparked a strong response, through both the fund-raising campaign and on social media.