T cares. Hold on to the all the things she says and does that prove she DOES care. All the hours she spends with you, how she relates to you and all of your insiders, the gifts, the meals, the time, the hugs - everything. T really, really cares.
It may be that she needs to get paid now too. She has been away a lot and that means loss of income over a long period of time. Needing to get paid doesn't cancel out that she cares - it just means that she has real world needs like eating and stuff too.
It can be really hard to hold on to the feeling that we are important and cared about by our Ts when the topic of money comes up. But try to remember that some Ts (incuding yours) don't get paid to care - some Ts become Ts because they have such a depth of caring inside them, and that they can find a way to sustain themselves financially doing something that comes naturally to them is just a bonus.
I'm sorry it is so hard.