Dear Ozzie to Dust?

While the fact that Alexandra, Jane and Sukie are all witches is a little jarring at first, it can be expected, considering the title's implications. However when Updike looks into Alexandra's mind as she considers the deceased lovers she's taken, the reader is thrown for a violent loop. The idea that the death of the husband or companion is the simple presence of the witch herself solidifies the notion of witchcraft being a natural part of these women's daily lives to the consistency of rubber cement: the reader is still suspicious of the author's use of metaphor despite the overwhelming number of occurrences pointing to the supernatural conclusion. it becomes difficult to define the difference between the events Updike wishes to come across as metaphor and the ones he intends to communicate are actually happening in the plot. Alexandra's thoughts on her archive of companions is a direct example of this:
"By the time of their actual divorce her former lord and master had become mere dirt--matter in the wrong place, as her mother had briskly defined it long ago--some polychrome dust she swept up and kept in a jar as a souvenir." [pg 9]
Since the entire passage consists of recollections and musings in the ambiguous and fanciful winding passages of Alexandra's own brain, the reader is unsure of the legitimacy of these occurrences. Did "Dear Ozzie" actually turn into dust or did Alexandra simply 'sweep' him out of her life?