THE HOSTAGE DRAMA : News Is Bittersweet for a Family Visited by Tragedy : Reaction: Relatives of hostage Joseph Cicippio are disappointed. His sister is dying of cancer, and a son and another sister have succumbed.

The release of hostage Edward Austin Tracy in Beirut came as bittersweet news for members of the family of hostage Joseph J. Cicippio, who hope it portends the freeing of other captives but fear that Cicippio will not make it home in time to see his terminally ill sister, Helen.

Cicippio’s brother, Thomas, emerged from the family’s stone rambler house here Sunday morning to tell reporters that family members are happy for Tracy and his family and hope to talk with him soon about the time he has spent with Joseph Cicippio. Both were held by the Revolutionary Justice Organization.

Yet the retired postal employee acknowledged that the news hurt, particularly because Joseph’s 71-year-old sister, Helen, has cancer.

“It’s been a disappointment for us, of course,” said Thomas Cicippio, 67. “It is very cruel to the family, there’s no question about that. We’ve been going through this for a long time, and you can’t say it gets better every time--it only gets worse.

“We are hopeful next time it will be Joseph,” he told the crowd of reporters from behind a forest of microphones.

The doctor of Helen Fazio, the hostage’s sister, has written a letter to Beirut newspapers, urging that Cicippio be released so that he can see his sister before she dies. Another of Joseph’s seven siblings, sister Rose, died of cancer a few months after he was captured. And the hostage’s oldest son, Joseph Jr., died of a heart attack at 35 last November.

Thomas Cicippio said that if his brother is released, he would fly to Germany with his wife and two of Joseph’s sons to greet him. “I’m half-packed. I’ve had my suitcase ready for some time,” he said.

Thomas Cicippio said he will ask Tracy about his brother’s “health and his attitude.” He also will try to find out, he said, whether Joseph “ever received any messages from the family--and if he knew about the deaths in our family.”

The Cicippio front lawn, on a grassy street on the edge of an old industrial suburb of Philadelphia, for nearly five years has held seven large white signs bearing the names of the American hostages in Lebanon and tags showing the days each has been held.

Sunday morning, Cicippio nailed in place another sign, “Freed,” in red letters by Tracy’s name. Also marked “Freed” on the placards are Robert Polhill and Frank Reed, who were released earlier.

The final count under Tracy’s name Sunday was 1,756 days. The count under Joseph Cicippio’s name was 1,795 days, but that number grows each day he is held.

The founder of a group that has offered support for the hostages and their families was more blunt in expressing her disappointment that Cicippio was not released. Carmella LaSpada, founder of No Greater Love, which is based in Washington, D.C., said that the hostage-takers at the Revolutionary Justice Organization are “really evil” not to free Cicippio.

“We had hoped--all the hostage families had hoped--that the Cicippios could be brought together. They (the hostage-takers) give the human race a bad name,” LaSpada said.

She plans to send Helen Fazio flowers with a note urging her to not to lose heart, LaSpada said.

In Washington, Peggy Say, sister of hostage Terry A. Anderson, said that she, too, “felt a lot of compassion for the Cicippio family.”

But, she added, “we are always joyous when any hostage comes out. Perhaps the others will come out soon. We are keeping each other strong.”

Members of his family now know that Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, has learned of the death of his father and brother from cancer. Both died in 1986, the year after he was abducted.

Say said that John McCarthy, a British hostage who was freed by the Islamic Jihad last week, told her that Anderson learned of the deaths after another hostage, Thomas M. Sutherland, heard the news on a French radio broadcast.

“It grieved Terry deeply, but he got past that and when John was told that his own mother died, Terry helped console him. . . . They reached a point where they could fondly reminisce rather than grieve,” Say said.

“Now that I know Terry is all right--or really much more than all right--I’m content to wait out the process,” she said.

Say said that the last several days have made her “absolutely” optimistic that the other hostages will be released. “It may be a slow, painful process, but it won’t be prolonged forever,” she predicted.

The Iranians, Syrians and the Lebanese government are all now committed to resolving the situation, she said, “so how can they let it go down in defeat?”

Judy Walker, another sister of Terry Anderson in Ocala, Fla., said that she also believes the signs of a growing political thaw in the Middle East suggest that prospects for the hostages “may be the best we’ve ever had it.”

She noted that McCarthy himself believes the hostage-takers are more determined to end the long standoff. But she added, “I only hope that the other parties involved--specifically, Israel--won’t do anything that might complicate this.”

Meanwhile, she said that she and other members of the Anderson family, who include her twin brother and other relatives in Ohio and New York, “are just waiting and trying to keep up with our day-to-day activities. But we’re staying near the phone and keeping up on the news.”

“It’s fantastic, wonderful news,” Virginia Steen, wife of hostage Alann Steen, said of Sunday’s release of Tracy. “There’s been a real change in atmosphere over there. Hopefully it will continue and they will all keep coming.”

Virginia Steen, whose husband is a 52-year-old journalism professor abducted 4 1/2 years ago, said she has been watching television news and fielding nonstop phone calls to her home in Jackson, Mich. The news “gives me real hope,” she said.

The daughter of hostage Sutherland said that her family got a reassuring telephone call Saturday from McCarthy, who said that Sutherland is looking forward to getting out of captivity and getting back to work.

“Dad was in good spirits and was in good health,” said Joan Sutherland, who lives in Gresham, Ore. “It’s good to hear because apparently he’s doing pretty well.”

Badr Turner, wife of hostage Jesse Turner, said she is now more hopeful that her husband’s 4 1/2-year ordeal may soon be over. She said she had been contacted by State Department officials, who said they are not sure what Tracy’s release means for the others.