I'm sorry to hear about your loss of employment,
Federal law is for job protection if you have been employed with the company for one year and have worked 1250 hours. If you have a serious health condition or an event that qualifies you for FMLA you would have been granted a Family Medical Leave for your event. However, it sounds like you had worked for 4 months for the company then it resorts to State law. In OR OFLA applies for those who have been employed for 90 days or more with the company and have averaged 25 hours of work in a week. Once again it has to be a medical condition that qualifies you or the event of taking care of selected family members, death, etc. under the law and if it you qualify it can not be a hardship to the company. There is a lot of details but I would definitely seek legal advice if you are not comfortable with the HR departments decision and you have checked the policies printed in your employee handbook.
In the meantime . . . enjoy your time off and treat yourself to some quality time of quilting and your new gift!! There is nothing more relaxing and self healing than doing something you enjoy. When working full time it's so hard to just use the time as you want to. We can only use the time we have and sometimes it isn't very much!!