What is the significance of the title of Eudora Welty's story "A Worn Path"?

The title of
s story seems significant for a number of reasons, including the following:

• The very opening sentence of the story not only mentions a path but implies
  that the adjective worn may be relevant to the old age of the :

an old Negro woman with her head tied in a red rag,
coming along a path through the pinewoods . . . .

• The word path is in some ways afor the Phoenixs larger journey through
  life.
• Much of the story involves Phoenixs literal journeys as she walks
  down paths.
• The phrase a worn path can suggest, metaphorically, the
  relative lack of variety in Phoenixs life.
• The fact that Phoenix spends
  much of the story walking on paths may symbolize her determination. She rarely stops to rest;
  she rarely takes it easy. The path may thus symbolize, to some degree, the challenges she
  faces and overcomes in life.
• Sometimes her journey gives Phoenix confidence
  in herself, as in the following passage:

At
the foot of this hill was a place where a log was laid across the creek.

Now comes the trial, said Phoenix. Putting her right foot out, she mounted the log and shut
her eyes. Lifting her skirt, leveling her cane fiercely before her like a festival figure in
some parade, she began to march across. Then she opened her eyes and she was safe on the other
side.

I wasn't as old as I thought,she said.

• The variety of obstacles Phoenix faces on the path symbolizes the variety of
  challenges she faces in her life.
• The fact that Phoenix often follows a
  path calls attention to those instances in which she must create a new path for herself, as in
  the following incident:

She passed through the
old cotton and went into a field of dead corn. It whispered and shook, and was taller than her
head. 'Through the maze now,' she said, for there was no path.

• Sometimes the fact that the path is worn means that Phoenix has chances to
  relax a bit, as when she says, Walk pretty . . . . This the easy place. This the easy
  going.
• Near the end of the story, Phoenix can't remember something and
  doesn't speak until asked the same question repeatedly. This fact suggest that she herself is
  becoming "worn" down by age.
• The title of the story anticipates
  the very last sentence of the story, thus giving the work a kind of symmetry:

Then her slow step began on the stairs, going
down.

Perhaps the final two words ("going
down") imply her approaching mortality. In any case, both at the very beginning and at the
very end of the story, Phoenix is walking her worn path.