"A Worn Path"-Double Meaning

"I bound to go to town, mister...I bound to go on my way, mister" (Welty, 227)

     Phoenix Jackson's age seems to have had a profound effect on her health.  She cannot see well and her movements are made at an extremely slow pace.  Because of this, the reader recognizes that this is not the first time Phoenix has walked this journey to town.  In this sense, she is literally walking a "worn" path.  Phoenix Jackson is also tired and has little patience for those that trouble her.  Her attitude with the white man and the nurse suggest she has acquired a sense of familiarity with cases such as these.  Exhausted by being classified/discriminated by her race, age, and financial state, Phoenix presents Welty's figurative "worn" path.  The specific journey of retrieving medicine for her sick grandson is paralleled with the much wider journey of life of this poor, old, black woman.  She is not irritated with either path rather fatigued by them.  Living a life of taking care of others before oneself and being classified by others as an outlier of society has obviously taken a toll on Phoenix's physical, mental, and spiritual health.