Life doesn’t pause for business investments, great opportunities or significant losses. It has an uncanny way of continuing on without regard for the economy or the real estate market.

That is precisely what happened to Ruben Suarez.

“My wife just had major back surgery,” Suarez said. “She’s suffering through some significant pain, so I don’t really care about anything but my wife getting better.”

Martha Suarez discovered she had scoliosis nearly two years ago. One year after that discovery, the curvature in her spine had already increased by 40 percent. The ensuing surgery on her back put as much stress and heartache on the Suarez clan as it would on any family.

The years leading up to her surgery were filled with pain to the point that she couldn’t move. The months after surgery were spent motionless in a hospital bed awaiting an arduous rehabilitation.

There are two things that can wear people down, the health of their loved ones and the state of their investments — enter the real estate market crash and the consequent slumping market of the past few years.

Barbara Highfield, the owner of Tombstone Real Estate, was the woman who helped Suarez with his venture into real estate in Tombstone.

“I helped him a lot,” Highfield said. “He’s enthusiastic and a good guy to do business with. I think he gets a bad rap sometimes because people see that the businesses are vacant — but sometimes there are things you can’t control.”

Suarez is the owner of five businesses along Highway 80 on the way into Tombstone including the Chevron gas station, the Pete Spence house, the Adobe Lodge Motel and the Bella Union Restaurant.

“I’m a real estate investor in Tucson,” Suarez said. “The idea was to buy (property in Tombstone) and unload it pretty quickly. I didn’t account for the fact that I’d get so attached to Tombstone, I love it.”

Suarez’s knowledge of the history of the Southwest is one of his passions. It is also his motivation for investing in Tombstone.

“I love the Southwest,” Suarez said. “That’s why I keep coming back even though in a business sense it’s not good.”

According to Suarez, investing in single-family homes in a tourist town when tourism is down — which he did — is not an avenue for profit. When an owner can’t rent out the homes, good business says to begin selling properties to free up money, Suarez added.

This is exactly what he has begun doing in Tucson.

“When real estate in Tucson gets better I can go back to Tombstone,” Suarez said. “You have to play it by ear, it’s not carrying its weight right now. Once I get Tucson squared away I’ll be able to focus on Tombstone by the end of next year.”

Although the end of next year seems like a long time for five businesses to sit vacant in Tombstone, the permits that allow the sale of gas at the gas station and liquor at the Bella Union are already lined up.

The patrons of the Adobe Lodge Motel are even using the Bella Union.

“The Bella Union is still open if people want to rent it out,” Suarez said. “At the motel I call it an exclusive venue of the Adobe Lodge Motel and attract more business by letting the patrons go over there and have a drink on the house.”

With permits in place and restorations made, these properties are certainly lucrative ones in Tombstone. Only six months after Suarez purchased the Bella Union for $350,000 he was offered double that amount to sell the property right away.

Only four years later he was offered $1.25 million for the property.

At the time, Suarez thought the Bella Union was worth up to four times what he paid for it.

He was just as surprised as the rest of America when the economy took its nosedive and, like countless real estate investors, was left with plenty of properties and no one who could pay a fair price.

But each day his wife goes to physical therapy she starts to feel a little better. Each day the country is removed from the economic woes of the past it begins to look a little better.

The lighthearted feeling of watching progress in action has enabled Suarez an insight that provides him with a plan for the future.

“I’ve been able to break away,” Suarez said. “I realize I’m behind on everything and I need to put some tender love and care back into the things I enjoy in Tombstone.”