JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — Two Joplin cousins who were nearly killed by an EF5 tornado that leveled one-third of their town say they don’t talk about the tornado much anymore. Lage Grigsby was so close to death that when he arrived at Freeman Hospital West after being pulled from the debris of a Home Depot store on May 22, 2011, he was taken to the morgue.

Mason Lillard’s surgeon says the girl would have died if a metal rod driven through her body would have shifted an inch in either direction.

The Joplin Globe reports Lage, now 19, and 15-year-old Mason were at Freeman Hospital on Thursday for the unveiling of a butterfly sculpture.

Mason and many other young survivors described “butterfly people” they said protected them during the tornado.