The widow of William Morgan, a Toledoan executed in 1961 Cuba for treason against Fidel Castro, is hopeful that a letter to Pope Francis will help bring her husband’s remains home.

“I think this is the right moment, my heart tells me that,” said Olga Goodwin, who lives in West Toledo. “I have not heard anything, but my heart says that.”

Mrs. Goodwin is banking on a thaw in diplomatic relations with Cuba initiated in December by President Obama to help the effort, which has been aided by U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo).

Before he left for Italy, Opie Rollison, a Toledo attorney who has voluntarily taken up her cause, gave Mrs. Goodwin a copy of the letter he wrote to the Pope, asking for intercession. The return of Mr. Morgan’s remains, it said, “would be one more step in the resolution of humanitarian issues between Cuba and the United States.”

Like Mrs. Goodwin, Mr. Rollison said he’s hopeful. “I continue to work with federal officials at all levels,” he said.

In a Saturday article in the Miami Herald he was quoted as saying, “I will say that I’m more optimistic now than I’ve ever been that we’re going to get this done.”

He also said, “From congresspersons to senators to people in the Treasury and State Departments, our efforts have gotten a friendly hearing and those efforts are still going on.”

He added that “within the confines of existing laws, there is a mechanism that would allow the repatriation of William Morgan’s remains.”

In 2002, Miss Kaptur went to Cuba and met with Castro to request the return of the Toledoan’s remains. Miss Kaptur’s staffers say her office was aware that Mr. Rollison carried a letter to the Pope’s office, and they continue to support the effort.

Mrs. Goodwin, 78, was an idealistic college student in Cuba in the 1950s when she discreetly boarded a bus to join rebel fighters in the mountains. Their shared goal was to overthrow Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.

She soon met the tall, blond William Morgan, who spoke little Spanish. He’d had a restless youth of petty crime, was kicked out of the Army, worked as a Miami gunrunner, and in 1957, left his wife and two children in Toledo for Florida. He admired the passion he’d seen in young Cubans who were ready to fight to the death for their homeland. Talking his way onto a boat, he joined them.

After Batista was overthrown, Mr. Morgan watched as Castro and companions built a Communist system that left the pro-democracy rebels he had fought with little better than before. Mr. Morgan stockpiled munitions and planned a revolt, but was captured and executed by a firing squad.

Mrs. Goodwin, whom he’d married and had two daughters with, was thrown in prison for more than a decade. She eventually fled on a boat and settled in Toledo. She befriended Loretta Morgan, her mother-in-law, got a job, and married James Goodwin, with whom she lives.

A book about Mr. Morgan, The Yankee Comandante: The Untold Story of Courage, Passion, and One American’s Fight to Liberate Cuba, was published in January. Mrs. Goodwin is pictured with Mr. Morgan on the cover, and features prominently in the dramatic tale, written by former Blade reporters and Pulitzer Prize winners Michael Sallah and Mitch Weiss.

Contact Tahree Lane at: tlane@theblade.com or 419-724-6075.

First Published February 25, 2015, 5:00 a.m.