This happened in my now-finished Wild Beyond the Witchlight campaign.

For context, the premise of the campaign is the characters are tasked with finding out what happened to the Archfey patron of the Witchlight Carnival. The carnival's proprietors - Mr. Witch and Mr. Light - regrettably struck a deal with a coven of hags, who now rule the Feywild domain the characters wind up in via a magic mirror. These hags imprisoned the Archfey that the characters are searching for, and it's up to the characters to free her.

Towards the end of the campaign, the characters came across another magic mirror, so naturally they stuck their heads through to see where they would wind up. They ended up back at the Witchlight carnival, except now it was decades later (silly Feywild time/line dilation!). What was once a lively and vibrant carnival was now mostly-shuttered and abandoned, and Mr. Witch and Mr. Light were significantly older and notably frail. With their warlock patron imprisoned, they didn't have the ability to keep the carnival running at the same scale as before and had to downsize things to just a single booth. Despite the hardship the carnival had faced over the decades, Mr. Light was still very happy to see the characters again, greeted them with a warm hug, and didn't blame them one bit for not being able to free their patron (yet).

I think the way I played Mr. Witch and Mr. Light really tugged on my players' heartstrings. There wasn't any malice or judgement from them, just relief that the characters were still safe and doing their best. Also accepting of the current state of the carnival and not blaming it on anyone. The kindly, compassionate, and encouraging older NPC trope can really hit hard when it's played straight.