Forty years ago, on July 10, 1982, I married an extraordinary woman – Susan Campbell.

Despite the ravages of everyday life, we have served our Lord Jesus Christ, raised three remarkable children and been proud to be Americans.

I was 28 when we got married. That was later than most of my friends. I was really tired of the being the “third wheel” and I was wearied with the dating scene.

I had a vision to get married, raise kids and have a successful life. The big piece that was missing was a wife.

Susan (don’t call her Sue or Susie) had finished her undergraduate degree from Oral Roberts University and was training to be a medical technologist at Hillcrest Medical Center.

I was a reporter at a major daily paper. We met because Susan was sharing a house with a young lady who was the sister-in-law of one of my roommates from college.

I can’t say that it was love at first sight – but it was close.

She was smart, good-looking (she still is) and she laughs at my jokes. (Actually, almost everyone laughs at my jokes but Susan always gets the punchline.”)

I met her family, who were living in North Carolina, before I proposed. Her dad, the late Rev. George Campbell, was very friendly and he was very picky about his daughter, whom he loved deeply. Her mom, Martha Campbell, instilled in their three children a great work ethic, a sense of helping others and a spiritual legacy.

I was so happy to be embraced by the Campbell Clan.

When we married, we were as poor as church mice. I had bought a 900-square-foot, two-bedroom house near 31st Street and Harvard Avenue. The master bedroom was so small that our king-sized waterbed was about 18 inches from the wall on both sides.

But we were happy.

In 1984, I came home from work one day and announced that I would be quitting my job and we would start a newspaper in Glenpool, which had no paper. We wanted to have children and we couldn’t make it on the reporter salary.

Susan was visibly upset and I was worried. She said it was just her emotions and she wanted to start this newspaper, the Glenpool Post.

And sure enough, we had our first child while we running the weekly paper in Glenpool.

Our goal was for Susan to be a stay-at-home mom, particularly when our kids were small. So, after three years, we sold the Glenpool Post (to a company that ran it into the ground and eventually closed it.)

Susan was an excellent mother for our kids. A few years later, we had our second son and eventually we had our daughter.

One reasons why our children have turned out to be good people and fine Christians is the early instruction they got from their Mother. She was their personal chef, their emergency medical worker, their reading instructor, their chauffeur, and their ride to church.

Thanks to Susan, our kids made good grades, had nice friends, stayed pretty healthy and accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.

Susan is what you would call a “Proverbs 31” wife.

In 2001, I quit my job as an editor of a daily newspaper and took a job as an editor of a trade magazine in Denver. Six months later, my boss said they were moving the magazine to New York City and asked if I would transfer.

That same time, Susan called in to be a contestant on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” About 30,000 people a day would call in to answer a set of rapid-fire questions. She answered all correctly and then she was picked to be on the prime-time version of the show. We didn’t win any money but we got an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City.

That’s where we decided to quit my job and start a newspaper, the Tulsa Beacon, in Tulsa.

It was tough in the beginning. We had a lot to learn. We opened an office in a center across from our house. Susan learned bookkeeping and some accounting. She learned how to mail hundreds of newspapers every week. She learned about corporation, business taxes and dealing with suppliers and printers.

She is so smart – she picked up most of this by herself. I was dealing with the part of the newspaper business that I had practiced for two decades.

And the time, she had a great attitude. Not only did she do the work of three people at our office, but she continued to be a busy mom to our kids.

Susan loves people.

She used to cook dinner for 100-plus people at our church every Wednesday night. When her aging parents retired and needed some help, she would fly to Florida every three months to help them with whatever they needed.

Susan usually answers the phone in our office because she is so kind and tolerant. The people who run legal notices with us love her because pays attention in such detail.

She prays for me and our kids and our grandchildren every day. She is so excited about the next three grandbabies who will be born this fall.

God brought me together with this wonderful woman.

And I am so grateful. I would love to have another 40 years with Susan Campbell Biggs.