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What does お察しいたします mean?

The context (manga) is that a family's son is about to die; I think the
speaker is trying to express condolences. However, the dictionary meaning
seems to be "I make a guess", and I don't think that can be right in the
context!
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2013-02-17T02:23:25.940
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2016-02-11T09:56:29.383
2016-02-11T09:56:29.383
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meaning expressions
What does お察しいたします mean?
察する means "to pick up on the hidden nature of something (often, a situation or
feelings) without it being made explicit for you" (hence "infer", "surmise",
"guess" -- although I think we're getting pretty far from the original meaning
at that point).

You can 察する that it is not appropriate to speak, for instance (i.e. 空気を読む).
You can also use it like 少しは察しろ ("use some tact", "realize how I feel", etc).

In お察しいたします, the speaker says he understands something intuitively -- the
listener's feelings. So this is a statement of sympathy.
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2013-02-17T03:43:55.310
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2013-02-17T03:43:55.310
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answer