You don’t use email?

Early this week I sent an e-mail to a co-worker at another office.
I waited a couple days for a response and after not receiving one, I called to see if they had gotten it.
“No – I only check my email every three or four weeks.”
HOW! How does someone working in a modern office, with e-mail not check it at least once a week?
Today I needed to send information to that same person and offered to send it via e-mail.
They told me “No. I don’t ever check my e-mail. Just send it with someone next time they come over here.”
Being that it was at least semi-urgent, I offered to fax the information to them.
And that was fine they said.
How do you encourage or get someone to check their e-mail more often than three to four weeks?
We have an 87 year-old-woman that works in the same office and she uses Microsoft Word and will type up responses to any e-mails I print for her.
I would imagine that if I actually networked her old Macintosh, she would learn to check her e-mail and respond to it daily.
My fear would be that she would get too many e-mails and respond to each of them.
She does have her own fan club (well sort of).
Any ideas on encouraging e-mail use within the office.
It just seems so time consuming and inefficient to do things any other way – especially when you’re working at different offices and neither person is in the office all day.