As promised, here is the solution I came up with for sending Lotus email via Access.
Dim NotesDB As Object
Dim NotesDoc As Object
Dim NotesRTF As Object
Dim NotesSession As Object
Set NotesSession = CreateObject("Notes.NotesSession"

Set NotesDB = NotesSession.GetDatabase("", ""
Call NotesDB.OpenMail
Set NotesDoc = NotesDB.createdocument
Call NotesDoc.replaceitemvalue("Sendto", strTo)
Call NotesDoc.replaceitemvalue("Subject", strSubject)
Set NotesRTF = NotesDoc.CreateRichTextItem("body"

Call NotesRTF.appendtext("Please click on the attachment box below. Select ""Launch"" if you are given the option."

Call NotesRTF.addnewline(2)
Call NotesRTF.embedObject(1454, "", "c:\NameOfFile.rtf", "mail.rtf"
Call NotesDoc.Send(False)
Set NotesSession = Nothing
With this solution Lotus must be launched but it can be minimized. The email will be sent without Lotus maximizing and stopping at the email screen. I suspect I might have been able to start Lotus and fill in the signon info if I had pursued it but I stopped because what finally clicked in my dim head was that I was using portions of the Lotus client and the user does not have the client. Instead they are using the Lotus I-Notes internet version. Now there is a challenge. I was able to launch IE and point to the correct HTTP address to start I-Notes but I am clueless on how to proceed from there. So the user may have to purchase Lotus Client. We are looking at some other possibilities as well.
If you have access to a Domino and Lotus help database, there is an good write-up called "Accessing the Domino Objects through COM" under Lotusscript/com/ole classes. COM (component object model) is a required interface for Microsoft & Lotus to talk to each other.
Hope this helps.