During what month does the story take place?

This story takes place
in December. The first line of the story reads, "It was Decembera bright frozen day in the
early morning." An old black woman named Phoenix Jackson makes her way from her home in the
rural countryside to the city so that she can retrieve a bottle of soothing medicine for her
grandson's throat. Aside from her, he has no one else on whom he can depend; ever since he
swallowed lye years ago, his grandmother has been making this trek along a worn path, so worn
that she knows the way even without her sight. The doctor has agreed to give her the medicine as
long as she can come to get it. She overcomes many challenges along the way, including the
racism of a hunter and the nurses at the doctor's office.