ESPN.com · Oct 30, 2015
Powers: A family's journey through hockey
Michael Leighton is toiling away in the Blackhawks minor-league system. AP Photo/Paul BeatyROCKFORD, Ill. -- Nine-year-old Ella Leighton is healthy, wide awake and full of cheer as she eats a bowl of cereal on the couch in the living room at 7:30 on a recent Friday morning.
The rest of the Leighton family isn't in such great shape. Theodore, who turned 2 the day before, spent part of his birthday at the doctor's office dealing with an ongoing cough. Even that can't stop him from enjoying his biggest birthday gift: a motorized toy car, which he is happily driving around the house. Annalise, 5, also has a cough and will be kept home from school because of it.