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Why did they have to do it the way they did?

What are we supposed to do?

Where are we supposed to go?

Those are the immediate questions and concerns expressed by many of the four-dozen or so tenants of the Forest Glen Senior Residence in Canyonville, whose worlds were turned upside-down a little more than a week ago when the property’s ownership posted a notice of “immediate closure.”

The residents include seniors, some into their 90s. They include disabled veterans, and others needing consistent medical care — including those needing oxygen supplied by the power still running in the six-story building.

The 13 employees at Forest Glen, who provided meals and maintenance, were laid off.

Residents, according to Star Netherton, a now-former assistant manager at the property, are “scared and confused.”

Well, who wouldn’t be? It is, on the surface, an unimaginable situation.

There’s more to the story, of course, and perhaps some answers will be found Thursday, when a meeting is scheduled to be held at the facility.

Forest Glen, owned by Emmert Canyonville LLC and staffed by Harmony Active Living, has been in disrepair. It has been cited in more than a dozen reports of abuse or violations to the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) over the past 10 years.

Harmony Active Living manager Jerry Reeves told the Rogue Valley Times that he posted the closure letter, which cited financial difficulties, on instructions from owner Terry Emmert.

Emert LLC, however, claimed the company had nothing to do with the closure and referred calls to Reeves.

Reeves said that Emmert was losing around $75,000 a month by continuing to operate Forest Glen, where residents paid $995 a month for a place to sleep and receive meal service.

No eviction notices were served.

It would simpler, cleaner, less-worrisome to focus our attention on the legal matters involved here. But those pale in comparison to the ethical questions and the plight of the residents of Forest Glen.

Those, too, are unimaginable.

As word went out about what had gone down, however, the community and local and state offices rallied.

There is no on-site meal services and, while residents began volunteering to cook and clean, others stepped up. Area markets provided food. Douglas County Senior Services was working to make sure residents would not go hungry, and it is sending case managers to find out the specifics of individual circumstances.

ODHS was in touch with its office of Aging and People with Disabilities, as well as the Long-term Care Ombudsman, to filter through the services that were being provided and to assist with where residents could go from here.

Most of all, though, it was the suddenly unemployed members of the Harmony Active Living staff who, despite their own lives being disrupted, decided they couldn’t leave the residents unattended.

“We were not told anything beyond the fact the building is closed,” Netherton said. “Where are these people supposed to go?”

There’s one thing in common for all involved in this story — those who own Forest Glen, those who operated it, worked there, live there, have relatives there, or simply heard about this painful situation through the media.

We’re all getting older.

And, someday, the least we’d like to hope for is that the rug won’t be pulled out from beneath us.

But if it is, the best we can hope for is to have the community rally around us like it has rallied around the residents of Forest Glen.