Like a child

In the short story A worn path, the main character, Phoenix, is never directly characterized. She seems like an odd character and through her actions and words, the author is able to indirectly characterize her. First of all, we find out that she is African American and is an old lady. She needs a cane to walk and she almost seems misguided leading me to believe that she is fairly old. However, while reading this story and observing Phoenix, it appears as if she acts like a child. For example, she asks someone in the city to tie her shoe for her. Also, on the last page of the short story, when the nurse offers to give her pennies from her purse, Phoenix out of nowhere says that 5 pennies is a nickel. Out of any type of person, I could only see a child saying such a thing. So this whole process of Phoenix's indirect characterization and displaying how she acts leads me to almost believe that Phoenix is a child. Maybe not literally in the story but metaphorically. I don't have any clue to what the theme to this story is, but I think that this comparison between her and a child is significant.