(AP) — People magazine has named an 81-year-old northwest Missouri man one of its “Heroes Among Us” for his work building dollhouses for underprivileged children.

Retired steel fabricator and woodworking enthusiast Earl Hurshman, of Excelsior Springs, began building elaborate dollhouses last year after visiting his wife’s grave on her birthday.

Bernadette Hurshman died in 2011. Her husband says he was at her gravesite last year when he asked what he should do with his life, and he could almost hear her telling him to get up and ” do something.”

Besides the dollhouses, he also builds barns or fire stations for little boys.

Hurshman told the magazine no amount of money can buy the joy he feels when getting hugged by a happy dollhouse recipient.