Lauren Tom, best known to FRIENDS fans as Ross Geller’s Season-2 girlfriend Julie, is asking the world to pray for her daughter.
“I wanted to share some tough news today,” Tom wrote in an Instagram post on Sunday, July 19. “This is my beautiful daughter, Ellie. She is currently battling osteosarcoma, (bone cancer) and my family and I are doing everything we can to aid in her healing.”
Tom, 64, shared a carousel of photos of Ellie, 25, alongside the announcement. Osteosarcoma, according to the Mayo Clinic, begins in the cells that form bones and strikes teenagers and young adults most often, typically in the long bones of the legs or arms.
Fans know Tom from her turn as Julie on NBC’s FRIENDS, the woman who briefly stole Ross away from Rachel during the show’s second season, and from her breakout role in 1993’s THE JOY LUCK CLUB, adapted from Amy Tan’s novel. Movieguide® called that movie “a rare and epic classic” when it hit theaters, and Tom went on to build a long career in movies and voice work.
None of that mattered much this week compared to the news about her daughter.
“I am reminded of the Fred Rogers quote,” Tom continued, “‘When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'”
It’s a fitting one to reach for. Mister Rogers, an ordained Presbyterian minister, spent his career telling children that comfort and love show up in the middle of hard things, and Tom said she’s already seen it firsthand.
She thanked her “friends and family and the incredible doctors and nurses” at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for their “ongoing boundless support, love and care,” adding, “It is truly humbling to see how willing people are to reach out and help.”
Tom didn’t hold back on describing her daughter, either.
“Ellie is an amazing, deep, sensitive, wise, strong, brave, intelligent and funny soul,” she wrote. “Beautiful inside and out.”
She closed her post with a mother’s plea.
“We have a long journey ahead of us,” Tom wrote, “would you be so kind to keep Ellie in your prayers for a complete recovery, and perhaps leave a comment for her here, or on her account? @eliatom_. Thank you so much for reading and for your support.”
The comments filled up fast with well-wishes from Tom’s Hollywood circle. THAT’ ’70S SHOW actor Kurtwood Smith wrote, “There is a place for you both in my heart Lauren and Ellie please stay!” while SHRINKING actress Lilan Bowden told Ellie directly, “You are so cool and we want you here with us!!”
Actor Ken Jeong added his own note of support: “Sending all our love and prayers for Ellie. Anything we can do let us know. Love you.”
Tom also left a comment on Ellie’s own Instagram post, writing, “You are strong, brave and will recover from this completely to live a beautiful, meaningful life. You are so loved, Ellie, by everyone who knows you.”
A diagnosis like Ellie’s upends a family’s life overnight, which is exactly why Tom asked strangers on the internet to do the one thing that costs nothing and means everything: pray.
For Christian families who’ve walked a similar road, Tom’s instinct to look for the helpers, and to ask for prayer rather than pretend everything is fine, is a small but real witness. Faith doesn’t require certainty about outcomes. It just asks for honesty about the need.
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