By Philip Walzer and Victoria Bourne
On a rainy day in June 2022, four strangers arrived at Bjorn Marshall’s door.
Carrying two suitcases between them, Hanna Tovsta, her husband, Roman Tovstyi, and their daughters, Anastasiia and Kateryna, had fled Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine months prior — five days after the Russians invaded their homeland.
For Marshall ’73, president and co-founder of Spacemakers, a Norfolk-based construction contractor, providing safe harbor for the family to adjust to their new lives in the United States was no great imposition. He was an empty nester with room in his Ghent residence to spare. And foreign exchange students from Germany, South Korea and China had shared his art-filled home in the past, he said.
For two years, until July 2024, Marshall slept in a bedroom on the first floor. Hanna, Roman, Anastasiia and Kateryna, used the three bedrooms upstairs. He provided free board; they paid for all their food. Tovsta is a web developer who works at home; her husband is a sheet metal worker and an Amazon driver.
Tovsta describes Marshall as “our friend or older brother.” Her family and Marshall usually ate their meals separately but would occasionally convene in the evenings to discuss politics or the economic situation in the world, Tovsta said.
“Bjorn helps us with some advice, and we feel more confident in the community.”
Marshall grew close to the girls. Even if they didn’t eat together, Marshall and Anastasiia observed a nighttime ritual. She washed the dishes; he dried them. “It’s great to have their energy in the house instead of being a hermit,” said Marshall, who also co-owns The Vanguard Brewpub & Distillery in Hampton.
“The level of their decorum with each other as well as with me is as nice as I’ve ever experienced,” he said. They reminded him a little of his own family.
A native of Tidewater, Marshall said attending was a family affair — both his older sister and a brother are alumni. He was a commuter student, he said, and one of only 20 studying structural engineering at the University in the early 1970s.
“ was super,” he said.
Later, Marshall shared his expertise as a member of the Engineering Advisory Board for several years, he said. In the early 2000s, his construction company built the original Arthur and Phyllis Kaplan Orchid Conservatory, which closed in 2023 to make way for the construction of its future home in the new biology building.
“A greenhouse is not something you get a chance to do very often,” he said.
Mari Pohlhaus, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who lives in Norfolk, first asked Marshall to house the Tovstyis. She has matched 45 Ukrainian refugees with hosts across the country.
“Bjorn is such a gracious person,” she said. “He loves them like his own children, and the kids consider him a member of the family, too.”
Hosting refugees is a very big deal, she said; she reached out to people in the community who she felt had the personality for it — Marshall was among them. “He’s very socially aware,” she said. “He has a vision of a better world.”
“What Bjorn and my other American friends have done has been remarkable,” she said.
Marshall insists he didn’t do anything “except get out of the way.”
Staying with Marshall helped the family save money, Tovsta said. And over a shared Memorial Day weekend meal of grilled sausages, mashed potatoes and cucumber salad, Tovsta said they had closed on a three-bedroom, two-bath, single-story home with a big, fenced-in yard in Virginia Beach. They family moved out in July.
“I’m excited for you,” Marshall said as he and the four former strangers dug into a meal prepared by Tovsta and Tovstyi, who braved a sudden downpour to manage the grill.
“You are always welcome in our home,” Tovsta told Marshall.
“I can only hope to be as good a guest as they’ve been,” Marshall said.
To help Ukrainian refugees with donations, housing or frequent flyer miles and hotel points, contact Mari Pohlhaus at mpohlhaus@ hotmail.com.
