Touched by History : Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait has jolted families, jobs and hopes. : Family Tries to Get By Without a Breadwinner : MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES

The long, lonely nights are the worst for Magdalena Hagacer.

“Every night I cry,” she said. “I cannot stop.”

She has not heard from her husband, Eduardo, one of more than 50,000 Filipinos trapped inside Kuwait since the Iraqi invasion more than a month ago.

He had worked as an auto mechanic in the desert town of Wafra since 1985, faithfully writing every two weeks and wiring his $500 monthly salary home to pay the rent and put their three children through school.

“Eddie hasn’t taken a vacation in five years so the children can go to college,” Magdalena Hagacer said, fighting back tears. “He always says he’ll stay until they finish.”

The eldest, Maricel, is already in college, and the two boys, Joan and Eduardo Jr., are in vocational school in this industrial suburb of Manila. Their monthly fees, bus fares and allowances come to $300. Add rent and food, and the family lives on the edge.

“He has not sent money since July 20,” she said. “And we have no other income.”

“The rent is due today,” she added glumly. “I can’t pay it.”

Instead, she is using her two-month deposit to cover rent for August and September. If no money arrives by October, the family will move in with relatives.

Her days are spent huddled near the radio, under a fluorescent light, hoping for news of her husband of 21 years. The strain has taken its toll; she looks wan and tired.

“We cannot eat because we are thinking of Eddie,” she said. “Even when I am watching TV, I am asking God for Eddie’s safety.”

After a month of silence, she got some good news recently. Antonio Renato, who shared the same plywood-and-tin workers’ quarters as Eduardo Hagacer, arrived at the apartment to say he had seen his friend safe in the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait two weeks ago. By then, thousands of desperate Filipinos had overrun the embassy compound.

Renato finally escaped with 13 other Filipinos, driving 1,100 miles to Jordan, then flying home last week, joining only 3,000 Filipinos evacuated so far.

“I told her Eddie is safe in the embassy in Kuwait,” Renato said. “If I tell her the truth, that there is no food there, what is the point? Why should I worry her? I told her Eddie’s probably on the way home now. Maybe, even, it’s true.”

He paused. “I didn’t tell her that there is no law there now,” he added. “There is only war.”