Highland Park family escapes Slovakia as borders close due to coronavirus

John McCarthy was thrilled when he found out he had been awarded a Fulbright scholarship to teach in Slovakia this year. It was the professional opportunity of a lifetime for the Robert Morris University history professor.

McCarthy, 44, and his wife Ann, 41, looked forward to life in Bratislava. He was to teach at Comenius University. Ann and their children — Veronica, 13, Ryan, 11, and Joe, 7 — would get a taste of Slovakian life and have an opportunity to travel in Europe.

When they left for Slovakia in January, McCarthy never imagined his dream job would turn into a frantic rush to get home when the country began to close its borders as the coronavirus spread across Europe during the second week of March.

“We were following the coronavirus story very closely,” John McCarthy said Friday from his home in Pittsburgh’s Highland Park. The McCarthys, who got home March 15, were hunkered down on the last leg of a 14-day self-quarantine after traveling in what they’ve come to call the “corona plane.”

McCarthy said he and his wife, a nurse midwife who was on leave from her post as clinical director of the Pittsburgh Midwife Center, considered staying in Slovakia.

He said officials began taking precautions against the virus and were warning citizens what was coming — long before the U.S. recognized the severity of the threat. There were only 200 confirmed cases of covid-19 in the entire country when they left.

Nonetheless, as the news grew more frightening, they weighed their decision with other Fulbright families.

Then came the notice, Ann McCarthy described in her blog, mccarthyslovakadventures.com.

“Then came the email that the choice was no longer ours to make,” she wrote. “We either had to get out of Slovakia with the help of the embassy or stay and know that the U.S. government would not be able to help us. Wow.”

Today, they can laugh about the notice. McCarthy’s blog entry from that day is labeled “The von Trapps,” a reference to the legendary singing family that fled over the mountains of Austria to escape the Nazis.

The McCarthy family’s departure was almost as rushed.

“We had 24 hours to pack all of our things and get out,” John McCarthy said.

Slovakia already had closed down. McCarthy found he’d have to get his family to Vienna to get a flight out of Austria before all flights shut down. Vienna is only about 40 or 50 miles from Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, but McCarthy couldn’t rent a car. He had to find a friend to drive the family to the Austrian border.

Once there, they found a line of cars 10 miles long — full of Slovak citizens waiting to get back into the country. Only those with Slovak passports were allowed to cross, and they were warned they would have to shelter in place for 14 days under police scrutiny.

The McCarthys finally found transportation to Vienna.

“We found an Austrian company and a random driver texted us and said, ‘I’m Georgie. Meet me at the red house.’

“We had six big bags, and we’re dragging them down the road. You never think you’ll see your 7-year-old son pulling a 50-pound suitcase down the road, but we walked to the red house,” McCarthy said. “The driver took us to the airport. We found a hotel, and it took us two days to get a flight out.”

The family finally managed to get a flight to Chicago, where they rented a van and drove to Pittsburgh — settling into a life in quarantine.

“We’ve got a ton of friends and family here, and they’ve been bringing us food since we got home,” McCarthy said. “I’m really impressed with the way people have been coming together.”

And better news yet: Ann McCarthy was tested for covid-19, and it came back negative.

“I keep telling the kids, ‘You’ve got a great story now,’ ” she said.