A character named Audrey who is a mother of a preschooler

[Audrey]

I read a book about 30 (?) years ago about mothers of children in a preschool and one of the mother's name was Audrey. She was a non-conformist in this group of mothers and everyone said she was crazy. She did have one friend and about halfway through the book something happens to Audrey (I don't want to spoil it). It was the first book that took my breath away when this event happened and I can still see the location of this book on my town's library shelf. The library has had major renovations so there is no way I can find this book so I hope someone can help me!!

[Juels]

If you give a warning, the spoiler is acceptable and might be the only method for identifying your book.

[Audrey]

Warning - spoiler alert. The character, Audrey, in this book, died. It took me pretty much by surprise!

[Audrey]

Juels wrote: "If you give a warning, the spoiler is acceptable and might be the only method for identifying your book."
Thanks!

[Juels]

Do you remember how or why?

[Audrey]

Juels wrote: "Do you remember how or why?" No I don't - one reason I want to re-read it. I think it was something very shocking but I just can't remember. Suicide? But I can't swear to it.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Where and when is it set?
Cover?
Author's gender?

[Audrey]

I just don’t remember much more. I realize that I may never find out based on my limited memory.

[arratavy]

Could it be Down Among the Women by Fay Weldon?

Google Books:
“Down among the women. What a place to be!” So begins Fay Weldon’s novel, opening onto 1950s London, where Wanda, a former radical who has left her husband, has raised her daughter Scarlet to be as tough and independent as she is. But twenty-year-old Scarlet has already had one abortion, and is about to become a single mother to the child she’ll call Byzantia. The novel also follows the lives of Scarlet’s friends: Sylvia, a born victim; respectable Jocelyn, hopelessly trapped in her dull, bourgeois existence; Audrey, who finally breaks out of her conventional life; and Helen, beautiful, vibrant, and doomed. Over the course of twenty years, they will discover it’s never too late to become the women they are meant to be.

[Rainbowheart]

Still looking, Audrey?

[Audrey]

arratavy wrote: "Could it be Down Among the Women by Fay Weldon?

Google Books:
“Down among the women. What a place to be!” So begins Fay Weldon’s novel, opening onto 1950s London, wher..."
No that is not it.

[Audrey]

Rainbowheart wrote: "Still looking, Audrey?"

Yes...