The answer to this question is FOR A COUPLE OF YEARS. "A Worn Path" is a short story written by Eudora Welty and based on this story, it took a couple or several years for the Phoenix's grandson to suffer from his injury. The injury that Phoenix's grandson had was that he swallowed a chemical powder used as a household cleaner. This resulted in a burn in his esophagus which hinders him to breathe and eat properly. In this part of the story, Phoenix was very determined to take his grandson to town for his medicines. This went on for a couple of years.